"I remain absolutely satisfied that the only information seen by our engineers were the four drawings that have so far been discussed today. I am absolutely adamant that the information was not used by Renault to influence the design of its cars."

Mackereth himself was called to give evidence under cross-examination and said he had never intended to pass the McLaren information – covering the internal layout of the fuel tank, the basic layout of the gear clusters, a tuned mass damper and a suspension damper – on to anybody else.

"I did it in March [2006]," he said, when asked about the eleven floppy discs that he had used to take the various drawings. "This may have been before or after handing in my notice; I am not sure.

"I did it for a combination of reasons; mainly in order to maintain a record, for myself, of the work I had done at McLaren and of which I was very proud; the other reasons had to do with professional interest and some insecurity at joining my new job. I had no intention of disclosing it to my new employers."

Renault was found guilty of being in possession of the information by the FIA, but was given no penalty.

To read the full 77-page transcript in its entirety, click HERE.