Renault Race Fixing - ING terminate Renault deal

[phil1993]

If anyone here follows rugby union, a team called Harlequins got a player to fake an injury an then offered him money and a long term contract so he wouldn't admit cheating. This has parallels...

Yeah. I feel a similar thing.. but if Alonso does go to Ferrari, what have Renault got... they wouldnt mind pulling out of F1. The R29 is a dog of a car so they need the R30 to be a blinder.

[Tom Vandenhove]

If renault pulls out of Formula 1 .....

[dazmoffman]

i hope this is not true this would end any involvment in F1 if renault found guilty of fixing resilts

[icegirljenni]

I think even this case was found guilty, Renault will not be in F1 for long too. The only hope they seem to have now is, on Alonso hoping he could have giving the team as much point as possible, and he would not want to still stick around to drive a car that cant promise him a chances to fight for champion. He has wasted 2 years with them, is time for him to make a move.

[mikhailv]

The money wouldn't be a problem, but I wouldnt be surprised if there was a contract in the offering for obliging... especially when his engineers told him to 'Push Nelson' just after Alonso pitted with seemingly nothing to play for.... very peculiar

Nelson was told to push in spa.

Next lap, he crashed.

Didnt help Renault then did it pal! Nothing peculiar about that. How many times was nelson told to push and he ended up binning it into the wall.........

[mikhailv]

Yeah, he wouldn't risk losing his salary and a job he's dreamed of having all his life.

Being number 2 to Alonso, and 'not recieving the same equipment'?

Why would he WANT to stay there, let alone ''crash'' to help Alonso win? Wouldnt it just show that he has very little talent if he continually bins it into the barriers 60% of the time? Which team would want him?

Infact, if you look at this whole situation in general, its very confusing. Ecclestone says, IF piquet DID crash on purpose, then he would be heavily penalised and kiss goodbye to his F1 career.

He's been bad mouthing renault and Briatore the day after he was sacked. Sour grapes? I mean, if Piquet was told to crash in exchange for a contract extension, why would Briatore sack him halfway through the year? I mean, he'd know Piquet would open his big mouth with that big head on him and his father. 'A clash of egos' as described by Jr; Reffering to Senior VS Briatore.

Would briatore REALLY let Piquet go with the risk of running his mouth? No. Would Renault LET them force another driver to crash? Ofcourse not!

Renault are a highly respected manufacturer, why would then tell another driver to crash to help Alonso win? Some say its because of how light Alonso was. but lets remind ourselves; Piquet crashed 3 laps after Alonso, his strategy required a safety car to work. Take a look this year. Alonso has had the SAME strategy at Spain, Valencia, Hungry for pole and China. Pat symonds is renound for trying obscure strategies. ''why do the same as everyone else and probably finish in the same position, or try something outside the box and hope for the best'' i recall him saying (along the lines of like).

This could seriously damage Renault, i cant see it.

Also, which drive would OBLIGE to crashing their car!? Piquet didnt go and do it like Schumacher in monaco 06. He went and destroyed half the rear end of the R28. Piquet must really have no fear to crash like that, but then, he crashed out of most the races and probably had the best experience bar DC and Kamakazi Nakajima that year!

SO really, I just cant believe that Renault would do such a thing. I dont believe briatore could, no matter what anyone says. Its also damaging to Alonso, because I really cant see him going along with it either, look at his body language throughout Quali and the race. He isn't a driver who cheats and causes accidents to win, nor does he require accidents so he can win a race. I cant see any driver on the grid who would crash into an opponent to win (aside from the disgraceful actions that Senna and Schumacher took. Which as you could tell, I dont like neither driver).

But overall, I really cant believe theyd do that. Unless the FIA believe telling Nelson Piquer Jr, to push on with the race (for the hundreth time) and try and get within 8 tenths of the Brother car and to actually do his job in getting points, I cant see it.

Telemetry and Radio are at the FIA disposal. It wouldnt surprise me if this was SENIORS doing.

and as for Massa saying he questioned briatore, well I think we know the motive; Forced ferrari into a mistake it wouldnt have made, losing Massa the race which means getting Singapore removed from results leading to Massa beind WDC.

i wouldnt put it past ferrari. They were the only ones to block michellin in Indy 2005 so they could win one race that year.

That leads me to my final point. If this was a contractual promise, would a former WDC and WCC team REALLY employ someone who cant score 1 measly point over what, 11 races? let alone about 17 points in over a year and a half? Renault need points, and I doubt theyd shoot themselves in the foot by keeping Nelson piquet.

But yeah! I am a renault fan, and i cant see it happened. If it did happen, which i hope and believe it didnt..... Id be gutted.

Bernie reckons guilty or not, this could be a valid reason for renault to pull out at the end of the year. And if it is proven false, The piquets will be bankrupt by the time Briatore and renault take them to court for slander.

[phil1993]

The FIA will decide by the end of this week whether or not to convene a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in the wake of the investigation about Nelson Piquet's Singapore 2008 crash.

The Spanish newspaper Diario AS said F1's governing body is currently going through the evidence relating to the claims, but has pencilled in a possible hearing in Paris for September 21, the Monday before this month's edition of the Singapore night race.

If summoned, Renault would face serious cheating and disrepute charges and the risk of expulsion from Formula One.

Senior team members including boss Flavio Briatore, Fernando Alonso and Pat Symonds are said to have been interviewed at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend, and some data-collecting devices taken away for investigation.

[Tom Vandenhove]

If summoned, Renault would face serious cheating and disrepute charges and the risk of expulsion from Formula One.

Please no I srsly hope this isn't true ...

[lealjaime]

a larger look at the incident with piquet

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIz5ZARvhX8[/youtube]

[mikhailv]

a larger look at the incident with piquet

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIz5ZARvhX8[/youtube]

I fail to see what that video shows other than selected highlights from the season review DVD.

Piquet dropped it on the parade lap. Alonso did in spain aswell, but both managed to recover.

Like i said in my post above, renault have tried the strategy a few times and it pays with the safety car or it doesnt.

Ofcourse Briatore is going to be happy Alonso won; He's the one who brings most of the points and is the number one driver. he doesnt asked to be cuddled like piquet said to the press.

[phil1993]

Renault to face WMSC

Renault has been summoned to appear before an extraordinary hearing of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council to answer charges that it caused a deliberate crash in last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

The team's representative have been asked to appear at the hearing, which takes place in Paris on September 21.

More to follow.

[JoostLamers]

Noble F1 (Twitter): "Renault has been summoned to appear before the FIA to answer charges of deliberately causing a crash in last year's Singapore GP. More soon"

[TwistedArmco]

Weird how this conincides with Nelson Piquet becoming a free agent huh? If it isn't Piquet's doing, then why investigate it retroactively now? What possible piece of information could have appeared that wasn't due to Nelson Piquet's mouth?

One more thing. The FIA should charge itself under article 151c of the sporting code: bringing the sport into disrepute. Retroactively. It would have to ban itself from a lot of world championships.


(in a separate thought, why weren't Benetton and Williams fined retroactively for the 1994 season when it was pretty much proven that they were both using traction control. An advert for the sale of a 1994 Benetton said something like "complete and authentic, as of the time - traction control included.")

[mikhailv]

If you reflect on this situation, this could change the course of F1 history.

IF renault are found guilty, what are they going to do?

if they disqualify Renault, then Ferrari will play up saying it forced them into an unprovoked error, meaning they'll chase for the race to be uncounted. Meaning lewis will loose the WDC by 5 points.

If they just disqualify renau, Ferrari will play bloody mary and probably would win the case.

[swca92]

They can't do that, that would be ludicrous. They'd lose all reputation if they did that, not even Ferrari would sink that low. If Todt ran the team, they'd probably do that but it would lead to future lawsuits in other sports and all sorts of horrible stuff, that won't happen.