Silverstone: Former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney said he left Italy fearing for his safety after being accused of passing confidential information to McLaren’s chief designer.

“There have been high-speed car chases. We’ve been followed by more than one car, with Italian plates, and when we cornered one of them last Thursday evening the men in it refused to speak,” a British daily quoted him as saying on Sunday.

“I don’t believe they were journalists,” the 47-year-old Briton added.

“There was tracking gear on my car. Someone was going to get hurt. I had no option but to get out of Italy.”

Stepney was dismissed by Ferrari at the start of the week after Formula One’s Italian glamour team took legal action against him for the “theft of technical information”.

McLaren have also suspended a senior technical employee, identified by newspapers as chief designer Mike Coughlan, pending an investigation after Ferrari data was allegedly discovered in his possession.

Honda issued a statement on Friday confirming that Stepney and Coughlan had met team boss Nick Fry in June to discuss job opportunities.