By Sam Cooper
September 11 2007

Mercedes motor sport boss Norbert Haug believes that McLaren will escape serious penalties in the McLaren-Ferrari espionage story. McLaren have been summoned to the world motor sports council this Thursday which will ultimately decide the teams fate for the 2007 and 2008 world championships, if McLaren are found guilty they could be banned from this years and next years world championships.

People in the formula one paddock are speculating on what punishment, if any, McLaren will receive if they are found guilty of being in possession of Ferrari technical information.

Possible punishments range from fines to being stripped of constructors points- something which will lose tens of millions of dollars of money, something that McLaren would rather keep.

Haug told Premiere, "I do not expect anything at all. I expect that we will have our own viewpoint confirmed, because we have not done anything that is against any rules."

The world motor sports council has stated if McLaren are found to have used the Ferrari technical information they will be banned for the 2007 and 2008 championships. This will hurt Prodrive F1 as they have been rumored to be using next years F1 car.

"We did not copy anything, but rather built a car with our own ideas. And I think we proved this (at Monza)"

McLaren's fate will be decided on Thursday.