BANGKOK, Thailand: Even in the world of Formula One, with its endemic subterfuge and rule-bending, nothing has shaken the sport quite like the news that Renault ordered a driver to deliberately crash so his teammate could win a race.
Word of Renault’s order for Nelson Piquet Jr. to spin his car into a concrete wall at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, helping teammate Fernando Alonso to victory, prompted the departure of long-serving managing director and prominent F1 personality Flavio Briatore. Additional punishment, such as race suspensions, may follow.
“All I have asked is we do not react in the heat of the moment, that we examine the facts and look at exactly what happened,” Renault president Carlos Ghosn said Thursday at the Frankfurt Motor Show. “There are investigations under way, and we are doing them in collaboration with all the F1 authorities because I absolutely don’t want to rush into an interpretation one way or another.” Cheating is one thing, experts said, but even more worrying is the idea of deliberating endangering a driver.
The life-threatening crash of Ferrari driver Felipe Massa at the Hungarian Grand Prix this year was just the latest evidence of what can result in F1 from the combination of loose debris and collisions with walls.
“If it puts human life at risk, whether it’s the spectators, the marshals or the drivers, then it’s more serious again,” FIA president Max Mosley said.
This is what happened: Alonso was lightly fueled at the start of the race, meaning he would be quick in the early stages but would be forced to pit earlier. However, when Piquet Jr. crashed right after Alonso’s stop, the safety car was deployed. That allowed Alonso, rather than being 30 seconds behind, to immediately tack onto the back of a field trailing behind the safety car at low speed. When the safety car was removed, others were soon forced to pit for fuel, so Alonso was vaulted up the order and subsequently won the race.
Renault had gradually developed a good car after starting the 2008 season poorly and was desperate for a good result. Alonso was quickest in the second and third practice sessions ahead of qualifying, but his car had a fuel pump problem in qualifying, meaning he would start from 15th on the grid. Rather than writing off the race, Renault knew the car was quick enough to win if Alonso could move up through the field.
The nature of the Singapore circuit was also a factor. When a driver spins out on a specialized race circuit there are long run-off areas, so the safety car usually doesn’t need to be deployed. However, Singapore is a street circuit, tightly hemmed in by concrete barriers, meaning even minor incidents leave cars and debris on the track.
“We’re not talking about a spin here, we’re talking about quite a large accident, which is quite extreme,” former world champion Damon Hill said. “It would go against every instinct you would expect a driver to have.”
The alleged plan came to light after Renault fired Piquet Jr. last month for continued underperformance. When Piquet Jr. made the Singapore plan public, Briatore initially responded by threatening legal action against the driver- for whom he had also been an agent-alleging the team had been blackmailed by the Brazilian and his three-time world champion father, Nelson Piquet.
However, on Monday, Renault announced it would not contest the allegations at next Monday’s FIA hearing in Paris and said both Briatore and engineering executive director Pat Symonds were leaving the team.
“The team considered that there was fault, and with fault there is a penalty,” Renault director general Patrick Pelata told RTL. “Piquet had already left and Pat Symonds is gone. Flavio Briatore considered what was his moral responsibility, and he resigned.”
The scandal could still prompt Renault’s withdrawal from Formula One.
“I am confident when the facts are established, we can take a very clear decision,” Ghosn said.
The scandal is the latest in a series of controversies in F1. What has happened on the track in 2009 has almost become a sideshow to the legal and political fights that have dominated the headlines.
The year began with challenges over the legality of several cars, including pacesetting Brawn GP, under new technical regulations. That legal dispute rumbled on as fans wondered whether the results of the early season races would be allowed to stand.
Soon after, reigning F1 champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren admitted to deliberately misleading a steward inquiry. That prompted the departure of the team’s sporting director, Dave Ryan, while long-serving team boss Ron Dennis also stepped aside. The departure of Dennis meant McLaren, which had been expelled from the 2007 constructors’ standings for spying on rival Ferrari, mitigated its punishment by promising a new and open culture within the team.
No sooner had those matters been resolved than the Formula One Teams Association said all but two of the teams would leave F1 and launch their own series.
