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Erik
November 2nd, 2003, 20:05
What we all knew, japanese copy others ;)

http://f1.racing-live.com/en/

Espionage, police search and an arrest
Ferrari attack Toyota [01/11/03 - 18:05]

Does it look similar to another car?

It started as a joke. Many people said that the Toyota TF103 looked so much like the Ferrari F2002 (and F2003-GA) that it was nicknamed the 'Ferrari with a Toyota engine'. Now the situation is getting more serious.

A few hours ago, Gazzetta dello Sport confirmed that German police searched the residence of an Italian engineer who is actually working for Toyota and is a former (less than 2 years ago) Ferrari employee.

Following this initial search, the police went to Cologne and searched the aerodynamics department of Toyota Racing for a few hours. Computers, CD's, hard disks and a few projects were seized. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, German justice is only focusing on the Italian engineer and not directly towards Toyota (at least for now).

Police also questioned co-workers of the engineer to get more information about the activities of the man. The engineer in question was later arrested by police.

The legal procedure made by the German court was initiated following a request from an Italian prosecutor in Modena, who lodged a complaint for Industrial espionage.