Hamilton could be biggest loser after pit lane's dirty tricks

Just four days before Hamilton is set to make his home Grand Prix debut at Silverstone, the McLaren-Mercedes team confirmed they had suspended a "senior member of their technical organisation".

McLaren refused to name the man but he is understood to be chief designer Mike Coughlan, one of the sport's most respected and experienced figures.

It has been revealed that police have raided Coughlan's house, near the McLaren headquarters in Woking, where it is alleged they found a package containing technical information belonging to McLaren's arch-rivals Ferrari.

The police search coincided with Ferrari sacking their British-born technical manager Nigel Stepney, one of the men behind much of former world champion Michael Schumacher's success with the Italian team, who they allege attempted to sabotage their cars.

Newspapers in Italy today reported that Stepney has been accused by the Ferrari team of trying to put detergent into the petrol tanks of two of their cars as they were being prepared for the Monaco Grand Prix in May.

Stepney, whose status at Ferrari was reflected by his £750,000-a-year salary, is on holiday with his family in the Philippines and was due to return to Ferrari's Modena base this week.

His solicitor, Sonia Bartolini, said 47-year-old Stepney was likely to protest his innocence at a press conference. Stepney, known to be unhappy at Ferrari following a reshuffle of the team's technical department, is expected to claim his is the victim of a dirty tricks campaign.

Hamilton's fear will be that he, too, could fall victim to the scandal that is rocking Formula One. The 22-year-old from Hertfordshire has raced into the record books by finishing on the podium

Two third places, four seconds and two glorious victories in Canada and the United States have seen him establish a 14-point lead in the drivers' title chase over McLaren team-mate and defending champion Fernando Alonso of Spain.

But Ferrari are fighting back, having finished one-two with Finn Kimi Raikkonen and Brazil's Felipe Massa at last weekend's French Grand Prix. That result cut McLaren's lead in the constructors' championship to 25 points.

While McLaren have a huge team of highly experienced designers and engineers to help run the cars of Hamilton and Alonso, the absence of Coughlan could impact upon the performances of the two McLarens at a Silverstone circuit where Ferrari were quickest during a test session a fortnight ago.

Adding to McLaren's misery, a spokesman for motor racing's governing body the FIA (International Automobile Federation) confirmed they were closely monitoring developments.

It is not clear what sanctions the FIA could impose on McLaren should the spying charges be proved but McLaren have made it clear they were unaware of the technical data said to have been received by their employee and will claim that no performance advantage over Ferrari has been gained.

In a statement, McLaren said: "The team have learned that this individual had personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April.

"While McLaren has no involvement in the matter and condemns such actions it will fully cooperate with any investigation.

"The individual has in the meanwhile been suspended by the company pending a full and proper investigation of the matter."

In their own statement, Ferrari said: "We confirm we have brought an action against Nigel Stepney and a Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes technical engineer in a court in Modena regarding the theft of technical information.

"A search was carried out of the engineer's house, where we found this information. Ferrari reserve the right to consider all implications, be they criminal, civil or of any other nature, according to the applicable laws."

Ferrari revealed that legal action against McLaren's engineer - they also did not name him - had begun in an English court.

Coughlan, 48, got his grounding in Formula One with the Lotus team. He then worked as head of the design office at Benetton and as race engineer with Tyrrell before he was recruited by Ferrari's design and development team.

Having worked with Stepney at Benetton and Ferrari, Coughlan joined McLaren in 2002 as chief designer.

He was unavailable for comment.