McLaren set to face the WMSC on wednesday

The 'lie-gate' saga has continued to be a topic in the Bahrain paddock, as McLaren Mercedes' World Motor Sport Council grilling looms for next Wednesday.

The latest twist in the scandal is the leaking to the press of a letter from Martin Whitmarsh to FIA President Max Mosley, in which the McLaren Team Principal acknowledges that McLaren broke the rules and apologises.

"Certainly, there's been no leak about it from us and I can't comment on it," Whitmarsh, asked about the Times newspaper leak, said in Bahrain.

The Guardian said the contrite letter is a break from McLaren's ‘previously oppositional stance towards motor sport's governing body’.

Some have therefore interpreted the letter, and the leak, as a manoeuvre to reduce the prospect of a harsh penalty next week.

According to rumours, the most likely punishments are either a 30 point reduction or race bans.

"It's very difficult to predict what the court will do," Red Bull's Christian Horner commented. "It would be a shame to lose a team for a couple of races but then again there has to be a penalty for lying to the stewards."