You’ve got to love a good scandal.

Seriously, who can honestly say they don’t enjoy a little gossip and intrigue now and then?

Obviously, I can’t.

And that’s because scandals make boring things a lot more interesting. I mean, who can really resist all those delicious little tidbits which you gleefully, but secretly (after all it’s bad manners to gloat), inhale?

At the very least, scandal has added a little spice and tsa tsa zu to the boring, boring, boring world of Formula 1 motor racing.

Honestly – snaps to Michael Schumacher, great career, hip, hip hoorah and all that – but his constant good form, fabulous car and boring soundbites did nothing but turn the sport into a great big snorefest for the past few years.

There are only so many ways you can say Michael Schumacher and Ferrari have won, again, before it starts sounding a little stale.

And while I admit watching fast little cars go round and round and round and round and round a little track is not my idea of a fun Saturday afternoon, I can appreciate the finesse and skill which goes into keeping them on that track.

In and out of the mechanics garage.

So when I heard that one of the chief McLaren designers “liberated” technical information from Ferrari in order to sell the secrets to Toyota, I was all ears.

Seriously, it’s like something out of a James Bond movie – except the hero is a copy shop clerk.

I’m sure I have some of this wrong, but from what I have managed to devour, the whole sordid mess goes something like this.

McLaren’s Mike Coughlan joined forces with Ferrari’s sacked chief engineer Nigel Stepney to steal the stallion’s top-secret information with a view of presenting a united, “you can’t resist us” front to Toyota for about a squillion dollars.

But their dastardly plan came undone when Coughlan’s wife dropped the plans off at a printing shop close to their Surrey home.

A sharp-eyed, or possibly bored and snooping, staff member spotted the 500 pages and thought it was a little strange that they were sitting in his shop.

Whether it was the Top Secret or Confidential stamps all over the documents which tipped him off is still unknown, but being a Good Samaritan, he gave Ferrari’s Italian headquarters a call.

How he got the number is a mystery – but what I would have given to be a fly on the wall for THAT particular conversation.

Anyways, Ferrari got a little angry – I’m sure there were lots of hand movements and Italian swearwords – and called the lawyers and the police, who tottered off and arrested Coughlan and added a few more charges to Stepney who was already in trouble for a whole bunch of unrelated and therefore boring stuff.

And now Ferrari is all like, “What did you know?” to McLaren, and McLaren is all like “Nothing, it was all his fault” and Ferrari is all like “I don’t believe you and I’m telling the FIA” and McLaren is all like “Whatever”.

Obviously that is the somewhat shortened version, but I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen a grudge match like this since Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie became the world’s best-known frienamies.

And I love it.

Meanwhile, the British High Court has got involved and everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else and the FIA will decide this week whether McLaren needs some time in the naughty corner in the form of being thrown out of this year’s championship or having points deducted.

And because they are a F1 team and have so far been full of ‘tude towards Ferrari and the FIA, that case is bound to have a LOT of fireworks.

Which makes the time when the Bulldogs breached the salary cap look very, very tame in comparison.

Like I said, you’ve got to love a good scandal.