Motor Sport: The circuit is buzzing with talk of spying and tampering, but is it all just a puff of smoke, asks Paddy Agnew.

Industrial espionage or a fit of pique from a disgruntled employee? On the weekend of the British Grand Prix, the Formula One circuit has been rocked by a much-reported, alleged spy story involving the two teams, McLaren and Ferrari, that currently dominate the Drivers and Constructors Championship tables.

On the face of it, there appears to be all the material Aurelio Zen, the fictional Venetian detective invented by the late Michael Dibdin, could ever want - a 700-page documentation of a rival team's plans found in a chief designer's home; senior figures in both McLaren and Ferrari sacked or suspended; a judicial enquiry in Italy into suspicious powders found on the fuel tanks of the Ferraris six days before this year's Monaco Grand Prix.

The story begins last month when Ferrari took a case in Modena, Italy, against Nigel Stepney, a senior engineer in their team and someone who had worked at the Ferrari headquarters of Maranello since the mid-1990s. He was accused of sabotage; in particular, Ferrari were suspicious of a white powder found in and around the fuel tanks of their F2007 cars.

A forensic examination of the powder and a judicial enquiry into the whole incident are ongoing.

The story gathered pace last week when the prestigious Italian sports daily Gazzetta Dello Sport, revealed Ferrari suspected Stepney of having passed documents and information relative to the F2007 to another team, namely McLaren.

The storm really started to blow in midweek with the news Stepney, who protests his innocence and claims to be the victim of a dirty-tricks campaign, had been sacked by Ferrari.

Then McLaren's chief designer Mike Coughlan was "suspended" after a huge amount of Ferrari documentation was allegedly found in his home.

Meanwhile, motor racing's governing body, the FIA, announced an enquiry into the whole affair.

An obviously concerned McLaren team immediately tried to defuse a potentially explosive situation: "McLaren has completed a thorough investigation and can confirm that no Ferrari intellectual property has been passed to any other members of the team or incorporated into its cars.

"McLaren has in the meanwhile openly disclosed these matters to the FIA and Ferrari and sought to satisfy any concerns that have arisen from this matter.

"In order to address some of the speculation McLaren has invited the FIA to conduct a full review of its cars to satisfy itself that the team has not benefited from any intellectual property of another competitor".

From here on, investigations into this affair will follow at least two, not always parallel, paths. On the one hand, the state attorney's office in Modena will continue its work - slowly. On the other hand, the FIA investigation can be expected to move rather more rapidly than the judicial affair in Modena.

It remains to be seen what skulduggery or wrongdoing, if any, was perpetrated and by whom.

Curiously, those familiar with the world of Formula One this week tended to play down the significance of the whole business. For a start, point out the experts, there is nothing new about Formula One teams copying one another's latest inventions. Whatever John invents on Monday, Jack tends to have stuck on his car by Saturday.

Photographers are always busy at work in the Formula One paddocks, not necessarily focusing on the glamorous VIPs but rather snapping the cars themselves with a view to offering the pics to rival teams. At one stage, the practice became so oppressive the teams began to erect screens behind which they could work in secrecy.

Such screens were, however, banned by the FIA, which argued fans wanted to see the cars in the pit garages as well as on the track.

The fear a chief designer might walk away with crucial technical secrets is so widespread that it has led to the "gardening" clause in many designers' contracts. Basically, this means that when a designer leaves one team, he is legally bound not to work for a rival team until a specified time, up to one year, has elapsed.

The theory here is that by the time the designer gets down to work for his new team, his "insights" will have been superseded and rendered redundant, such is the speed with which Formula One technology moves.

Another curious aspect of this affair concerns the timing of the alleged "leak". If, as has been reported, the 700 pages of Ferrari documentation were delivered to the McLaren designer in April, it is questionable just how valuable they might have proved.

In April, the season has already started and the newly designed cars are out on the track, leaving little time or space for a radical design overhaul in order to copy complex novelties invented by a rival team. Furthermore, the Ferrari and McLaren cars are radically different in concept and design.

Other key questions remain. Last winter, Nigel Stepney was overlooked when Ferrari appointed Mario Almondo as their new technical director in succession to Ross Brawn. Was Stepney upset by this decision? Was he miffed by being promoted sideways to a desk job at Fiorano (Stepney had always been down there in the paddock even to the point of being run over, and having a leg broken, by Michael Schumacher in an infamous incident at the Barcelona Grand Prix some years back)? Did his old friendship with Coughlan play any part in the affair (the two worked together at Benetton in the 1990s)? Did money (for the documents) change hands?

Whatever the answers, the whole affair has hardly lessened the pressure on McLaren and their world championship leader, Lewis Hamilton, as he prepares for Sunday's "home" match, British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Who said Formula One was boring?

Nick Fry today became the latest Formula One boss to defend his team's integrity and honesty as the "spy" saga took another twist.

The latest speculation suggests Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan met with Honda chief executive officer Fry to offer him the information.

Fry, like McLaren's Ron Dennis, insists his team are in the clear, and though confirming a meeting did take place, he said it was merely to discuss potential employment with Honda.

A statement read: "Given the speculation surrounding the legal investigations at Ferrari and McLaren, Honda would like to clarify that earlier this year Nigel Stepney requested a meeting with Nick Fry.

"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 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."