(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-30 10:30

LONDON - Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has denied saying that McLaren could start next season with a points penalty as a consequence of this year's spying controversy.

"I certainly didn't say that they were going to lose their points," the Briton told Reuters on Thursday after German magazine Auto Motor und Sport published an interview on Wednesday.

"I can't say it and (International Automobile Federation president) Max Mosley can't say it.

"What Max said after the last World Council Meeting when the thing happened was that if they (the FIA) found anything on the (McLaren) car, they could be (penalised).

"But they have got to have found something in there for a start and then the World Council has got to agree to it.

"So no-one, including Max Mosley, can say anything about that whole thing," said Ecclestone.

Ecclestone's comments to the magazine were interpreted as suggesting the Mercedes-powered team could suffer a further points penalty if their 2008 car was deemed to have been influenced by Ferrari data.

McLaren were fined $100 million and stripped of all their constructors' points this year after a dossier of Ferrari technical information was found in the possession of chief designer Mike Coughlan.

Talk of espionage overshadowed the season and still rumbles on, with 2006 champions Renault summoned to a hearing in Monaco next week to face charges of having McLaren technical information in their possession.

The FIA said in September that they would receive a full technical report on the 2008 McLaren and would decide in December whether to impose any further sanction.

Mosley, in an interview with the BBC, said at the time that any such punishment was likely to be in the form of a "negative point allocation".

McLaren have always denied incorporating any Ferrari information on their 2007 car and say they have nothing to fear from any further inspections.