SILVERSTONE - Ferrari will return to the High Court in London on Tuesday in the latest twist to a "spy" controversy blighting Formula One.
Team boss Jean Todt said the action followed a house search by lawyers and independent experts last week that led to championship leaders McLarensuspending an as-yet unnamed senior technical employee.
Newspapers have identified him as chief designer Mike Coughlan.
Ferrari have already dismissed their former engineer Nigel Stepney, a Briton with 14 years service in the Italian glamour team, after taking legal action against him for alleged "theft of technical information".
Stepney told British Sunday newspapers that he had not passed any sensitive information to Coughlan, even though the two had approached Honda together to enquire about job opportunities.
Todt said Ferrari were not worried about Stepney revealing any potentially embarrassing secrets about his team.
"It makes me smile," the Frenchman told a news conference at the British Grand Prix won by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
"It is like in a family, so many things do happen -- we have had some good times and some tough times but nothing which cannot come out.
"In this business, if something has to come out it does not wait 10 years. We have about 900 people employed in the company," he added.
Todt said the Stepney affair would not reduce the likelihood of former technical director Ross Brawn, also a Briton and a friend of Stepney, returning from a year's sabbatical.
"I don't want to speak for him, but he is very sad knowing all that has happened," said Todt. "But it is nothing which will interfere in the choices he will have to make for the future.
"We will meet over the next weeks, I can confirm that."
The Frenchman would not confirm a newspaper report that his team were tipped off about the leaked information by someone working at a photocopy shop in England.
"I can understand the question but it will come out very quickly," he said.
