McLaren no longer have a February hearing hanging over them

F1's governing body, the FIA, has cancelled a hearing into the legality of McLaren's 2008 car after the team issued an apology last week.

McLaren admitted leaked Ferrari data was more "widely disseminated" within their camp than previously suspected.

The FIA's response came after McLaren said they would freeze any development of their 2008 car derived from Ferrari.

McLaren were fined £50m and lost their constructors' points in September for possessing a 780-page document of confidential Ferrari technical information.

But last week was the first time they had admitted the data went further into the company than to chief designer Mike Coughlan, and drivers Fernando Alonso and Pedro de la Rosa.

In the light of McLaren's admission, apology and actions, FIA president Max Mosley last week asked the body's world council "for their consent to cancel the hearing scheduled for 14 February 2008 and, in the interests of the sport, to consider this matter closed."

Mosley's request to the WMSC has been accepted, meaning McLaren can race next year without fear of additional penalties and the F1 "spy-gate" can be brought to a close.

The FIA's response came after McLaren said they would freeze development of three aspects of their 2008 design which may have been derived from the Ferrari document.

The FIA's investigation into the design of the 2008 McLaren concluded that the team were planning to use systems which "appear to have been developed by McLaren as a result of the receipt of confidential Ferrari information".

Ferrari have concurred with Mosley's approach but are still to pursue the matter through the courts, both in Italy and England.

A Ferrari statement said: "In the light of McLaren's apology, and the guarantees it has presented, Ferrari respects the proposal of the FIA president to cancel the extraordinary general meeting of the WMSC, thus bringing this incident to a close from a sporting point of view.

"However, it is confirmed that criminal actions are under way in Italy, and civil ones in England are still continuing."

In a statement, McLaren confirmed that the concerns of the sport's governing body, the FIA, over the use of the Ferrari data were legitimate.

"It has become clear that Ferrari information was more widely disseminated within McLaren than was previously communicated," the team said on its website.

"McLaren has written to the WMSC to apologise that it has taken an FIA investigation to find this information and have expressed our deep regret that our understanding of the facts was improved as a result of the FIA inspection rather than our own investigations."