Just as the British Grand Prix weekend got underway at Silverstone on Friday morning the Nigel Stepney 'espionage' case took yet another sensational twist as a third major Grand Prix outfit, Honda Racing F1 Team, became embroiled in the case.

Last week it became clearer that in April Nigel Stepney had passed on confidential Ferrari documents, which reportedly run to more than 500 pages, to Mike Coughlan, the McLaren-Mercedes chief designer, who was immediately suspended by the team. Stepney, who was in charge of performance development at the Scuderia this year after 15 years with the team, was also sacked last week after an internal disciplinary procedure was completed.

The case took another twist late last week though when Honda, belatedly, issued a statement to say that Stepney and Coughlan had visited the team to explore job opportunities, leading to speculation that Stepney and Coughlan had been pooling technical resources as they worked together to target finding a higher paying employer.

"Given the speculation surrounding the legal investigations at Ferrari and McLaren, the Honda Racing F1 Team would like to clarify that earlier this year Nigel Stepney, formerly of Scuderia Ferrari, requested a meeting with Nick Fry, Chief Executive Officer of the Honda Racing F1 Team," read the statement issued by the Honda team.
 

"Nigel Stepney subsequently met in June of this year with Nick Fry and brought with him Mike Coughlan of McLaren, with a view to investigating job opportunities within the Honda Racing F1 Team. Honda would like to stress that at no point during this meeting was any confidential information offered or received. Nick Fry informed Jean Todt and Ron Dennis of the meeting and has offered to provide any information required by Ferrari and McLaren," concluded the Honda team press release.

The Honda Racing F1 Team has struggled to find any form so far this year and it is no secret that the team management have been seeking to strengthen key areas of their technical department. Speculation prior to the espionage case blowing up had already linked Stepney with joining the team. After winning a grand prix last year, the Honda F1 team has gone very swiftly backwards this year, with the team's two drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, mostly to be seen fighting for position outside the top ten.