Renault accept race-fixing charge as disgraced Flavio Briatore is forced out of F1

[USAndretti42]

Nelsinho has been given immunity from punishment by the FIA so they won't stop him racing again. It's just that no team is likely to employ him. On a bit of a side note, I read that sales of Renault cars plummeted in Brazil when he got sacked. I wonder how they are doing now?

[rocket63]

Its obviously not good business. Dubble Sooper Nuclear Ooops.

[Advantage]

In a nutshell:

Briatore life ban

Symonds 5 years.

Renault 2 years suspended for 2.

Piquet/Alonso no penalty.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/8266090.stm

Press Release

World Motor Sport Council 21/09/2009

At an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council held in Paris on 21 September 2009, the ING Renault F1 team (

[russellbosier]

It a joke. Act of 'unparalleled severity' and then as good as let off. 2 year suspended disqualification should they do something similar again. A voluntery contribution to the FIA saftey scheme was accpeted - isnt that a bribe!

[lemoncurd]

That decision seems fairly harsh but pretty expected on Briatore. I can't help feeling that Piquet and Renault have got out of the whole affair pretty lightly though...

[Jonathan]

Whilst I do think piquet was a bit of a dipsick in this whole even - I think he should not have escaped a ticking off at least.

Oh well roll on the next scandal !

At least one of the teams is probably a front for an internation drugs smuggling cartel or something...

Another one is developing WMD (team america style)

Lets face it they're just 10 evil little companies.

Edited September 21, 2009 by Jonathan

[russellbosier]

I'm not surprised given history. Renault were let off for having Mclaren car designs on there servers as well. Mclaren got the $100m fine, and just after that Renault were found to have Mclaren data on there servers but were let off without charge because it couldnt be proved they used it to any benefit.

[USAndretti42]

It certainly does make the $100,000,000 fine to McLaren look disproportionate. Effectively killing Briatore's driver management sideline was a clever move but Renault certainly seems to have got off very lightly. They are highly unlikely to commit a "comparable" breach of the rules again. If it were to be activated if they broke any rule would be too much, though. They would get disqualified for the driver speeding in the pitlane if that were the case and that would be too much. They were fortunate that F1 needs their engines.

[Kimbers]

Ha! What a load of old bollocks! The quotes on the news were that the sport can't allow for another big name to go now and hence Renault were let off. Personally it's my opinion that when any particular team is more important than the sport then I have no respect for the sport. If that had happened in the "real world" they would now be locked up in jail for Dangerous driving, conspracy to defraud and many ogther charges.

What makes it different? Sure Fabio and his number 2 have got long bans but imho Renault got away with it, like all large teams would do.

Basically you can do anything you want, even put life at risk and defraud the whole sport, as long as you are a large team with lots of money.

PANTS!

[rocket63]

Utter rot as usual. FIA = F**king Incompetent Arseholes. What a joke.

Governing body. God help motorsport.

[Advantage]

[Jonathan]

hahaha

[rogerch]

I don't doubt the validity of the claims. What I find sus is the info was 10 months old the FIA knew about it, amazingly couldn't act without a writen statement, when did that happen before? Then all of a sudden it all comes up again. It smacks of a last Horah from Max, Renault was never the tatget.

[rocket63]

Like it G............

[USAndretti42]

One thing that hasn't been talked about much is that, last year, the cars' fuel levels were set before Q3. Much has been written about how Alonso's strategy didn't make much sense without the crash but his strategy was set before the end of qualifying while all the reports say that the crash idea came up after qualifying.

The "witness X" is very convenient. Having this witness suddenly come out of the woodwork and proclaim, as an independent, that only Piquet Jr, Briatore and Symonds were aware of the plot seems, if you have your cynical hat on, very helpful for Renault to show that no-one higher up knew about it.

Wouldn't have happened without the manufacturers being involved. There was obviously an immense pressure on Briatore and Symonds to get results or have the team closed down. A privateer team wouldn't be in that situation. They might struggle to get sponsorship if the resutls were poor but they would soldier on to the end because it was all they did. They didn't have the second income stream from making cars or selling energy drinks or an airline or whatever. Even Lotus, in Chapman's day creaetd the car company to provide money to run the team. He wouldn't have thought of closing the team because of bad results. Same with Ferrari. People like Williams, Tyrrell, Minardi, Ron Dennis, Jackie Oliver, Eddie Jordan would never have been under that sort of pressure to cheat at that level.

[rocket63]

I dont see that reasoning as having any credibilty.

[USAndretti42]

Which bit?

[rocket63]

I don't get the immense pressure. Team being shut down. Where was it mentioned that this was the position faced by the team? Every team is under pressure to stay in the sport. It's proven that the strategy was to cheat. Even An International company like Renault have little recourse when the custodians of their business set out to cheat one and all.

[USAndretti42]

My point was that the manufacturer teams are way more likely to pull out of the sport and shut everything down than the privateer teams are because it's just a sideline for the manufacturers. For the privateers it's how they earn their living.

I don't believe that someone like Pat Symonds would have contemplated the plan if he wasn't in a desperate situation with a known cost-cutter having recently taken over as head of Renault.

Whata do you mean by " An International company like Renault have little recourse when the custodians of their business set out to cheat one and all?"

[Kimbers]

I would say it means "like it or lump it Renault. You were caught cheating and intentionally so!"

Sorry Trev. But I'm under pressure to perform in my job. 24/7. If I don't buy or sell enough vehicles our franchises don't have enough vehicles to rent out and they won't pay our fee's which then results in me not being paid. It doesn't justify or mean I would do something nefarious or against the law to justify my position.

Another point. Under British law, if a company does something illegal it is the the top people who are responsible for their employees behaviour. If a manager at Lotus had ordered someone to crash a car as a means to an end, then it would have been MJK responsible and he could actually serve a prison sentence for the actions of that employee. Renualt therefore, got off very lightly. Even more so if you look at the terrible inconsistancy of the FIA. McLaren cheated last year (or was it 2007) by spying and using another teams designs on their car. They lost all their constructors points (which also cost them over

[USAndretti42]

I don't think McLaren were spying. An ex-Ferrari employee sent a McLaren engineer a load of confidential information and the McLaren engineer didn't report it. McLaren's big mistake, as it turned out, was not to bend over, admit whatever charges were levelled against them and agree to accept the consequences. Instead, the management denied knowing about the information and were hauled over the coals for it.

Yes the treatment handed out to McLaren and Renault were very different and inconsistent. (Whatever happened to the criminal investigation into this that was going on in Italy?) I don't deny it's a case of money talking. After all, I was suggesting that one reason that Renault were treated more harshly was because the grid needs the engines. If Toyota were to leave, there would definitely have been a crisis of engine supply.

At least Renault's sponsors have started pulling the plug so they will be feeling some hurt.