SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS (Belgium) - MCLAREN may be willing to take a US$100 million (S$151 million) hit in the interests of Formula One, team boss Ron Dennis said on Saturday.

The record fine and loss of all McLaren's 2007 constructors' points were imposed by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) on Thursday at a hearing into a spying controversy.

The team have been under a cloud since a 780 page dossier of Ferrari technical information was found at the home of their now-suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan in July.

'If we do not appeal this, it will be because we want closure,' Dennis told reporters at the Belgian Grand Prix. 'The other teams I hope will understand the financial penalty we will swallow in the interests of the sport.'

McLaren say they did not gain any competitive advantage from the Ferrari data. However, the hearing in Paris heard how double world champion Fernando Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa were aware Coughlan was getting information from inside Ferrari.

Dennis has six days in which to appeal and he said he would make a recommendation to the McLaren shareholders, who would then have the final say.

Complete closure

Dennis was wary of the prospect of months, if not years, of legal argument ahead and the accompanying distraction to the team management. He said any decision against an appeal must not be interpreted as an admission of guilt.

'I don't want to drag this thing on if I can get closure,' he Dennis. 'And closure is for Formula One. It has to be complete closure,' he added, asked about the prospect of legal action by Ferrari rumbling on in the Italian courts for years to come.

The Italian team have taken action against former employee Nigel Stepney, who is accused of leaking the dossier to Coughlan earlier this year.

Italian police notified Dennis and other McLaren managers at Monza last weekend that they were under investigation, while Coughlan faces legal action in England.

The US$100 million fine will be minus any prize money that would have come to the team, and that alone could effectively halve the size of any cheque payable.

McLaren, 40 per cent owned by DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes and one of the wealthiest teams in the paddock, are debt-free despite having spent in the region of US$600 million on their state-of-the-art Woking factory.

Annual turnover is roughly US$450-500 million.

'There is not more than one other team in the pit lane ... who can take a $100 million hit,' said Dennis. 'At the end of the day, we can swallow it.'

Whistleblower

Dennis effectively turned whistleblower against his own team in a spying controversy that cost them the Formula One constructors' title, he revealed on Friday.

McLaren were stripped of their 2007 constructors' points and fined a record US$100 million on Thursday after a hearing of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) World Motor Sport Council.

In a statement issued after the governing body had revealed details of e-mails between his Spanish test driver Pedro de la Rosa and Fernando Alonso, Dennis was adamant McLaren had not used Ferrari intellectual property to gain any competitive advantage.

To reinforce the point, he added: 'It's been recognised that McLaren has been open, co-operative and transparent throughout the entire process.

'I want to stress that once I became aware that new evidence might exist, which I did on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix (Aug 5), I immediately phoned the FIA to keep them informed,' he said at the Belgian Grand Prix.

McLaren had escaped sanction at a hearing of the World Motor Sport Council in July which found that the team were in possession of unauthorised Ferrari information but could not prove they had benefited from it.

McLaren were warned at the time that if new evidence emerged, they could be kicked out of this and next year's championship.

The FIA announced on Sept 5 that it had new evidence - without saying where it had come from - and reconvened the council that imposed the heavy penalty on McLaren.

Frosty relationship

Double world champion Alonso, whose relationship with the team and Dennis has become increasingly frosty, was stripped of pole position and demoted five places at the Hungarian Grand Prix for impeding championship-leading team mate Lewis Hamilton in qualifying.

Alonso and Hamilton were not on talking terms for the rest of the weekend and paddock sources said the angry Spaniard had talks with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone on the Saturday after qualifying.

The same sources said Alonso, who has been linked to a return to Renault, and Dennis also met on the Sunday morning in Hungary where the team boss became aware of the existence of the e-mails.

'All the information from Ferrari is very reliable. It comes from Nigel Stepney, their former chief mechanic - I don't know what post he holds now,' De la Rosa e-mailed Alonso on March 25 in an exchange about the Ferrari's weight distribution.

'He's the same person who told us in Australia that Kimi (Raikkonen) was stopping in lap 18. He's very friendly with Mike Coughlan, our chief designer, and he told him that.' Coughlan was suspended by McLaren on July 3 after a 780 page dossier of Ferrari information was found at his home. -- REUTERS