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Formula 1

McLaren have sacked long-term employee Dave Ryan over his role in Lewis Hamilton's exclusion from the Australian Grand Prix.

The Woking-based team were on Tuesday ordered to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council in Paris on April 29.

It is the third time McLaren have been hauled before the WMSC in less than two years, with the last hearing resulting in the team being handed a sporting record £49.2million fine following the 'spy-gate' furore.

The threat of fresh sanctions is looming after the team were deemed to be in breach of the FIA's International Sporting Code, specifically Article 151c which relates to 'any fraudulent conduct, or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally'.

McLaren will answer charges that they provided misleading information to FIA-appointed stewards at separate hearings, on March 29 and April 2.

Former sporting director Ryan, who had been with McLaren since 1974, was suspended on Friday after the storm surrounding the case blew up ahead of the weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

A McLaren statement released yesterday read: "McLaren acknowledge receipt of an invitation to appear at an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris on April 29, received this afternoon.

"We undertake to co-operate fully with all WMSC processes, and welcome the opportunity to work with the FIA in the best interests of Formula One.

"This afternoon McLaren and former sporting director, Dave Ryan, have formally parted company.

"As a result, he is no longer an employee of any of the constituent companies of the McLaren Group."

Ryan was the team member who attended a stewards' hearing - along with Hamilton - following the Melbourne race, and was subsequently found to have lied in a bid to see the reigning world champion claim third.

In the build-up to the race in Malaysia, the FIA came to hear of an interview Hamilton gave immediately after the race at Albert Park.

Hamilton confirmed the team instructed him to allow Trulli by - contrary to comments made by Ryan and Hamilton at the original hearing - and it is at that stage the stewards look into the radio transmissions between Hamilton and the pit wall.

It became abundantly clear Ryan and Hamilton lied, although the latter under orders from the former, who was soon suspended by team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

On Friday, a contrite, visibly upset Hamilton issued a sincere apology for his actions, laying the blame firmly at Ryan's door.

Hamilton, who was excluded from the classification of the race in Australia, is now in the clear as far as the FIA is concerned.

The WMSC will now focus on taking the team to task, with a fine the logical outcome.

However, they have the power to either suspend McLaren from races, or even exclude them from the championship.

In the immediate fallout of Hamilton's Australian disqualification rumours circulated to the effect that the Briton was considering his future in the sport.

Team principal Whitmarsh, meanwhile, admitted after Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix that his place at the McLaren helm had been placed in jeopardy by recent events.

"It wouldn't be true to say that it (resignation) wasn't (on my mind) because at a time like this, you think about what you got involved with the sport for, and it wasn't for this sort of thing," said Whitmarsh.

"It hasn't been a great experience for me and it wasn't what I started out 20 years ago to experience.

"In the longer term, I can contemplate my future. It's not self-determining.

"It's for the shareholders of this team to take a view and it's ultimately up to them to decide what's best for this team."