Everybody knows that Bernie wants Ferrari to win because it's good business. Also, the feud between Bernie and Dennis is old news. Some insiders say that Bernie wants to destroy Dennis before his retirement, and he took this opportunity to do it. But anybody in Ron Dennis's possition has to be a very tough person, so he'll be back with a vengeance.
I feel that speculation about who knew what is just that, I don't think us outsiders will ever know the truth. I read the whole thing and I don't think it was established (at least officially) whether or not McLaren used the stolen data.
As much as F1 without Ferrari wouldn't be the same, I feel McLaren's place in the sport is second to none. If they chose to compete elsewhere it's not going to be good for either party.
What is clear is that F1 is more political than ever, and seriously needs to reinvent itself. 15 out of 18 races are boring processions every year.
The qualifying process puts the fastest cars at the front, and then at race time we expect something magical will happen and the slower cars will suddenly become competitive... Since Harry Potter is not a Spyker driver, things will continue to be the same way. Other racing series have seriously looked at ways to even the play field and improve the show, and I think F1 needs to follow suit. Now that there won't be a USGP next year, those of us U.S. based long time fans will continue to gradually lose interest and start to look at (gasp!) IRL for open wheel racing- Which by the way, if IRL and CHAMP merge and it becomes an international, open wheel, combining road and oval tracks, competitive series, it may give F1 a good run for their (tons of) money.
I went off on a tangent, I know, but as a recap I'll just say that F1 will only be competitive again if all the teams have similar resources or they find ways to make it harder for the fastest cars to win races, be it a weight handicap like in horse racing, or intermingle the starting positions... I don't know.
EDIT: minutes after writing all this, I read this:
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6775.html
it seems clear that McLaren did use the information to their advantage, so they should be penalized. US$100M seems excessive, but with the kind of money these teams have it may be a fair amount.
The only reason why the drivers may still compete for the driver's title is because they were granted immunity for information given to FIA. It's ironic that what started with a (supposedly disgruntled) Ferrari employee passing secret information, ended virtually giving Ferrari the constructor's title. Kind of makes you wonder if Stepney was a double agent all along.
I stand by all my diatribe about the lack of competitiveness in the sport.
