Stepney: I wasn't to blame.

Former Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney remains insistent he was not responsible for the spying scandal that rocked Formula 1 in 2007 and which ultimately saw McLaren-Mercedes fined a sporting record $100 million USD and thrown out of the constructors' world championship.

The Briton - who had worked in the top flight since 1979 - was revealed to have been the source of confidential Ferrari data that travelled from Maranello to Woking in the early part of the season, the catalyst for the 'Spygate' saga that gripped fans as the year wore on. Stepney passed the information on to Mike Coughlan, who was then McLaren's chief designer, and the incident was discovered after Coughlan's wife Trudy went to make copies of the 780-page Ferrari document in a photocopying shop in Woking.

Although the 49-year-old does admit to having disclosed some of Ferrari's technical secrets to a man employed by the Prancing Horse's greatest rival and apologised to McLaren for what subsequently conspired, he steadfastly maintains he never intended for any of it to be used by the British outfit to gain an advantage.

Rather, he contends, he had hoped that he and Coughlan would be able to join forces and together use it to find alternative employment. Back in February he had spoken out about being 'not currently happy with the situation within the team', following the Scuderia's re-organisation in the wake of technical director Ross Brawn's departure. Honda later confirmed that both Stepney and Coughlan had approached the team regarding possible job opportunities last July.

"I don't feel responsible in anyway at all for what happened at McLaren," Stepney told Sky Sports' World Motorsports Show, in a broadcast to be shown tonight. "My original idea was to make contact with somebody - not to benefit, but to see what I could do somewhere else with a group of people.

"Obviously it got a bit sensitive and somebody used information more than I actually thought it [would be used]. It should never have been used to that extreme."

Stepney also hinted that there was much that remained unspoken about the row, suggesting Ferrari had got off extremely lightly over the affair. In a statement issued last October, he claimed that in exchange for what he had provided to Coughlan, he had received key information about McLaren's set-up, pit-stops, weight distribution and other aspects of their car whilst he was still a Ferrari employee.

"There is a lot being said," he went on. "I wouldn't say it is all correct, but there is a lot underneath that hasn't been said that should have been.

"It's been dramatised for various other reasons, which we will have to go into at a later date. Some stuff has been done politically, some stuff should have been brought out in a different way, but the end result...who knows whether it was right or wrong to make the season as it was?"

As to what the future holds for him, Stepney re-iterated his desire to remain in motor racing, though having been banned from working in F1 for life he said he now hankered after a return to the 'grass roots' level of the sport.

"I've got a lot of other more interesting opportunities going back into the grass roots of motor racing," he underlined. "Don't get me wrong, I've worked in Formula 1 for many years; I've enjoyed it, I've made a living out of it [and] it's been a very good experience in life, but I think I prefer to go into a sort of a grass roots racing again."