Spy saga over... almost

McLaren this week apologised both to Ferrari and to Formula One rulemakers the FIA for their part in the controversy, in which their chief designer Mike Coughlan was caught in possession of confidential Ferrari technical documents.

The British team also said that they would freeze development on three major systems within their 2008 car which the FIA believe could have otherwise featured information contained within the Ferrari documents.

This led FIA president Max Mosley to cancel a EGM of the World Motorsport Council on February 14 next year, in which a report on the legality of the 2008 McLaren was due to be delivered to the team and the public.

Following this decision, Ferrari pledged to end its dispute with McLaren on a sporting level.

"Ferrari respects the proposal of the FIA President to cancel the extraordinary general meeting of the World Motor Sport Council... thus bringing this incident to a close from a sporting point of view," read a team statement.

Ferrari will continue with their civil case, however, against the now suspended Coughlan and his wife Trudy - who made replicas of the 780-page Ferrari dossier at a copy shop.

They will also maintain their criminal proceedings against Nigel Stepney, the Scuderia's former technical manager, who is accused of leaking the documents to Coughlan in the first place.

"It is confirmed that criminal actions underway in Italy and civil ones in England are still continuing," continued the Ferrari statement.

The actions of Coughlan resulted in a US $100 million [£50.2 million] fine for McLaren and expulsion from this year's constructors' championship after the team were found guilty by the FIA of knowingly possessing the information.

Stepney, meanwhile, continues to deny that he leaked the documents from Ferrari.