Key Evidence in Renault F1 Singapore Controversy

Flavio Briatore, Renault F1 team principal is quite in a a fix after Nelson Piquet Jr, the team's former driver, who has claimed that he was asked by the team to crash in Singapore night race, and PAt Symonds, the Renault director of engineering, were offered immunity by the FIA in return for full disclosure of what went on at the night race last September.

The figure now in the unfolding of this whole drama is Symonds, who is alleged to have given Piquet detailed instructions about when and where to crash. Symonds was told by FIA twice that he could escape punishment if he provided information about the incident.

The whole scenario just put Symonds in a difficult situation. If he is going to stand by Briatore, he and the Italian risk being banned from F1 if they are found guilty; if he testifies in exchange for immunity,he may be perceived by others as only trying to save his own skin at the team's expense.

Quite a fix he is in, indeed.

Renault Seemed to Accept F1 Crash Charge

Following speculations of whose side Pat Symonds, chief engineer of Renault team will take during his meeting with FIA, recent unfolding of this controversy will see the departure of both Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds from the F1 team.

This followed after Renault F1 team decided not to dispute the crashgate controversy allegations in a statement.

"It (Renault) also wishes to state that its managing director, Flavio Briatore, and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team," it added.

Rubens Barrichello to Blame for Crashgate Scandal

FLAVIO BRIATORE incredibly tried to blame Brawn GP star Rubens Barrichello for the Crashgate scandal that has landed Renault with a race-fix charge.

The FIA have charged Renault with telling their own driver Nelson Piquet Jr to crash so the safety car would come out, helping their other driver Fernando Alonso.

Piquet smashed into a wall on lap 14 of F1's Singapore Grand Prix last September, forcing the safety car onto the track after which Alonso took the lead and went on to win.

But Renault's multi-millionaire boss Briatore insisted the safety car only came out after Barrichello conked out in his Honda on the next lap.

TV footage shows the safety car was out before Jenson Button's team-mate stopped.

Briatore - co-owner of football club QPR - blamed Barrichello in the immediate aftermath of the incident, which happened in F1's first floodlit night race.

The Italian tycoon was quizzed on Speed TV after Alonso's surprise victory. The interviewer said: "Even Nelson Piquet chipped in. If not for his safety car, Fernando wouldn't have been there."

But Briatore, who had admitted beforehand his team needed a miracle to win, replied: "We don't know. No, because it was Barrichello. The safety car was out for Barrichello.

"The miracle was done by Fernando Alonso and the team because everybody was working very hard for this result and we are very happy."

Renault have been summoned before an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on September 21 and face being booted out of the sport.

Barrichello was just ahead of Piquet when his fellow Brazilian smashed into the wall.

But the race video clearly shows Barrichello was not involved in the incident and was not a factor in the safety car being deployed.

Piquet - sacked by Renault last month for poor results - even admitted that the team wanted a safety car out because Alonso had been short-fuelled.

He said: "The accident was my mistake. We tried two extreme strategies with Fernando quite short and me quite long in the hope of getting a safety car."

Piquet has been ordered by lawyers not to say anything before the Paris hearing when his and Renault's fate will be decided.

But the 24-year-old, unlikely to get another drive in F1, admitted to "strange situations" that season and blasted Briatore as his "executioner".

Piquet, who was beaten to the GP2 title by Britain's current F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton in 2006, said: "The conditions I have had to deal with during the last two years have been very strange to say the least.

"There are incidents that I can hardly believe occurred myself. After the opening part of the season, some strange situations began to happen."

Briatore, double world champ Alonso and Renault's technical chief Pat Symonds were all interviewed by FIA officials at last weekend's Belgian GP.

Investigators have also been analysing the telemetry readings from Piquet's car to see if he took the corner on lap 14 differently to previous times.

And they have checked the pit-to-car radio conversations for signs of any coded calls to Piquet. The Sao Paulo-born driver is understood to have been asking which lap he was on in the the run-up to the crash - despite it being so early in the race.

The sport's governing body have also called in Quest, the private intelligence agency, to look into the incident, which could lead to criminal charges and multi-million pound lawsuits.

If Renault are found guilty of ordering Piquet to crash they could be liable to claims by race fans, marshals or fellow drivers for putting their lives at risk.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who co-owns QPR with long-time friend Briatore, said: "The WMSC have been called to find out what's gone on. It does not mean Renault are guilty.

"Flavio is insisting that he knows nothing about it.

"But it is not good for the sport.

"People seem to be spending money betting on F1 which is good, but they will not want to do that if they think something is wrong with the result."


By Ian Gordon
Source


"Anything goes wrong and everybody's starting to point fingers. It's really amazing, isn't it? Very typical."

Race Fixing Controversy Could Force Renault Out of F1

Bernie Ecclestone warned on Tuesday that the allegations surrounding the crash of Piquet on last year's Singapore F1 could prompt Renault to walk away from F1.

"This is not the sort of thing we need at the moment," the 78-year-old Briton was quoted saying at the Times newspaper.

"I think it will p*** off Renault for a start. Them leaving the sport is a danger, obviously. I mean, I hope that it isn't like that, but it's the sort of thing that might happen."

Honda had quit Formula 1 last December due to the financial crisis and BMW are about to leave at the end of this season.

 The FIA gave no details about the incidents and did not say who had made the allegations.

However media reports originating in Brazil said the focus was on the sport's first night race staged in Singapore last September.

Double world champion Fernando Alonso won that race, his first in more than a year and from 15th place on the starting grid, after Brazilian team mate Nelson Piquet crashed and brought out the safety car.

Formula One race fixing allegation

David Coulthard: Formula One race fixing allegation - I don't buy it

First we had conspiracy theories regarding the dramatically improved performances of the Force Indias, the Toyotas and the BMWs during Saturday qualifying, which produced an unusual-looking grid for Sunday's race.

Now we learn that the FIA, F1's governing body, is investigating claims that Renault allegedly tried to fix the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.



Well, call me naive but I'm not buying it. In the case of the weekend just gone, the unusual performances can be explained by virtue of the fact that these latest F1 cars, which are the result of the biggest rule changes in the sport in over a quarter of a century, had never before visited Spa, a circuit of unique characteristics. It's like Andy Murray going from grass to clay – you need time to adapt and time is the one thing F1 teams don't have any more with in-season testing banned.

Besides, how would you actually go about fixing a grid in such a manner?

Stickier tyres? Higher revving engines? Less/more ballast? Those scenarios would require the complicity of Bridgestone, mechanics/team personnel, the FIA. It would be impossible to keep such subterfuge under wraps. Not everyone would be comfortable working as part of a charade and a whistle-blower would quickly emerge.

The Renault allegations are far more credible, although once again I find them very hard to stand up. From a driver's perspective, it is certainly technically possible. It's not hard to crash a car and if you hit the barriers side-on, as Nelson Piquet did in Singapore, then it would be fairly low impact and not too dangerous for him.

Morally, though, it is off the scale. In order to keep the safety car out for any length of time Renault would have needed to choose a place on the track where the marshals could not get to quickly.

It would also have needed the complicity of a number of people – the only evidence I can envisage would be radio communications, which are openly available to the FIA and the team. Someone would surely have said something by now. As I say, I don't buy it.

In any case, it is a shame that such speculation is detracting from what was another incredible weekend. Jenson Button's 'yips', as I described them last week, continue and there is no question now that his performance levels have dropped. Rubens Barrichello is showing him what the Brawn car can do; Jenson just isn't delivering at the same level.

I don't know why that is. It may be that Rubens' vast experience in terms of feedback to engineers is coming to the fore now. Or it may be that the pressure of leading is subconsciously distracting Jenson from his best.

I found Ross Brawn's comments in the aftermath of the race instructive. He said Jenson needed to get used to dealing with the pressure. Now I was never in the position Jenson finds himself in so I can only surmise what it must feel like to see your championship lead tumbling with each passing race, but I can certainly understand how frustrating it must be to have your motivation or ability questioned by journalists.

But pressure is the name of the game and Jenson must rise to it. Let's not forget, his drives early in the season bore comparison with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. He has not lost that ability overnight and he can regain it in Italy.

Monza presents another unique set of problems. It is a very low downforce circuit, it will be hotter... God knows who will finish on top there, but I wouldn't rule out another race like the one we just saw with the likes of Force India and Ferrari on top.

Mind you, that would not necessarily be bad news for Jenson, who just needs to keep finishing in the points. With five races to go it could not be more fascinatingly poised.

By: David Coulthard
Source

" I wonder if this would still crop up as controversy if Piquet still happens to be Alonso's teammate. "