Crashgate

Another leak/rumour would point towards the punishment for Renault being losing all WCC points for 2009, but the team will not be sold and will continue into 2010. It is a rumour, but so far every single rumour which has leaked through certain journalists concerning this scandal eventually turned out to be accurate.
 
^i read that in Swedish media too, the FIA can use this to make sure Renault stays in F1 another year...
 
Nelson Piquet Sr. has revealed that he first informed the FIA about the Singapore Grand Prix race fix claims at last year's race in Brazil - but no action could be taken until his son made an official statement about the matter.

As further details about the race-fixing case continue to emerge ahead of Monday's FIA World Council hearing into the matter, Piquet claimed that he first brought the case to the attention of F1 race director Charlie Whiting at Interlagos in 2008.

British newspaper The Daily Mirror published extracts of an interview that Piquet Sr. conducted with Martin Smith of investigators Quest on August 17 this year where he talked about bringing the matter to light.

"When this thing happened in Singapore I couldn't believe it. I'd done motor racing for all my life," Piquet was quoted as saying.

"I couldn't believe this thing. And after I called Nelson and Nelson said yes they asked me if I could help and this and that. I said 'but you could have hurt yourself and if you didn't hurt yourself you could have hurt somebody else' and he said 'yeah, I know it's wrong' but anyway.

"Anyway in Brazil I talk to Charlie."

He added: "I got him and I said 'look, what could happen to Nelson if I bring this up?' And I was afraid to screw up the career of Nelson."

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has also published different extracts of the interview, and it suggests that Whiting told Piquet the matter 'could not be proved."

When Piquet later told FIA president Max Mosley, he said the response was: "Charlie has already informed me but we can't prove anything unless someone comes to tell me the facts."

It was only when Piquet Jr. made a testimony to FIA officials in the week after this year's Hungarian Grand Prix that action could officially begin from the governing body to investigate the matter.

The Piquets are having legal action taken against them by former Renault boss Flavio Briatore for blackmail - something Piquet Sr. is not too worried about.

Speaking to German magazine Auto Motor Und Sport, Piquet said: "Let him go ahead. I have the money to afford the best lawyers. And against what he wants to complain about? Against the truth?"
 
Damage control now...
 
Too much damage control can have the opposite effect.

I think this affair should be explored down to its molecules and everything should be made public.

Consider it a cleansing fire.

If the participants are punished really hard (and I mean really hard), nobody will ever do it again.

But if the participants somehow get out of it all without severe punishment, with "only" their motorsport careers at an end, it sends the wrong signal. The F1 is on the verge of a "Tour de France" effect. Aside from hardcore cycling fans, the Tour has lost all its reputation because of a too lax handling with doping.

I think the sponsors and car companies do not want to let that happen to Formula 1. Too much money involved.

So the FIA is well-advised to punish hard. Very hard. If Renault gets a bloody nose in this, they can attend to their former employees and sue their guts out of them. Briatore is not exactly a poor man.
That's the way it is done in commerce, too: Companies have to take responsibility for the illegal deeds of their employees first and can deal with them personally later on.
 
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Carlos Gracia, the head of the Spanish motorsport federation, has criticised the FIA for granting immunity to Nelson Piquet Jr in the Renault race-fixing case.

Although Renault remains liable to sanctions from the governing body when it appears before the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Monday, Piquet was given immunity from any punishment when he agreed to make a statement to the FIA about events in last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

Gracia believes Piquet is equally culpable in the affair and should also face the hearing.

"This kid, if it was up to me, wouldn't be allowed to walk blind people on the sidewalk," Gracia told Spanish radio station Onda Cero. "It's such yobbish behaviour from which he has also benefited, because, like he says in his sworn statement, he did it so he would get a contract renewal for 2009, and he will be paid until the end of the year.

"In that case this is a person should not only be sanctioned by the Council and the FIA, but he should also be prosecuted in an ordinary court.

"I found out through the press that Mr Nelsinho was going to get immunity. It would be a total shamelessness if this happened in the FIA."

He also criticised Piquet's triple world champion Nelson Piquet Senior's handling of the scandal, and the younger Piquet's performances at Renault.

"He is a silly kid who doesn't know if he has pushed the throttle or not, because it's no coincidence that he's had 17 accidents since he's been at Renault," said Gracia.

"The father has an uncontrollable kid and he is a resentful parent. And when they turn the fan on, they try to get the s**t to hit as many people as possible."

But despite his outspoken comments about the Piquet family, Gracia thinks it is correct that Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds left their positions at the Renault team.

"Renault is a very serious company," he said. "It's a company that has been in the world of motorsport for many years, without any kind of immorality, and if the immorality was caused because of those two gentlemen, then it's a good thing that they are out of Formula 1.

"Because be it Flavio Briatore, as big as his name is, or be it the engineer, what's clear is that we don't want these people in Formula 1."


Hmm... What an unbiased and completely unexpected position for the President of the Spanish Motorsport Federation to have.

Perhaps they should thoroughly look into any knowledge that Alonso had of this incident, before or after.

I wonder what tunes Mr. Gracia would be singing then?
 
Hmm... What an unbiased and completely unexpected position for the President of the Spanish Motorsport Federation to have.

Perhaps they should thoroughly look into any knowledge that Alonso had of this incident, before or after.

I wonder what tunes Mr. Gracia would be singing then?

The FIA, as far as I know, did investigate Alonso and concluded that he took no part in the plan. The engineers may have been given other reasons to use for convincing him to run a short first stint, completely avoiding the concealed plan.
 
The FIA, as far as I know, did investigate Alonso and concluded that he took no part in the plan. The engineers may have been given other reasons to use for convincing him to run a short first stint, completely avoiding the concealed plan.

Yes that's what I've read too...

But I have to think there's more to this story than everyone really knows yet.

I'd be interested to see what really went on.
 
Yes that's what I've read too...

But I have to think there's more to this story than everyone really knows yet.

I'd be interested to see what really went on.

To be honest, I think we'll only find out when biographies/autobiographies of those involved are released. And it'll be a while until then.
 
FIA SUMMONS ALONSO TO APPEAR BEFORE THE WORLD COUNCIL

Posted on | September 20, 2009 | by James Allen

Fernando Alonso, the driver who benefitted most from Nelson Piquet?s deliberate accident in Singapore last year, has been summoned by the FIA to give evidence to the World Council on Monday.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, former team principal Flavio Briatore has also been summoned, but not Pat Symonds, whom the FIA investigators found to be centrally involved in the conspiracy. Symonds is believed to be on holiday in Spain.

Both men have left the team and Briatore is thus under no compulsion to attend and is unlikely to do so. Whether he does or he doesn?t there is a feeling that he is likely to be banned from attending the pits and paddock at motor races in the future, which would make his life difficult in terms of the driver management company he runs and with GP2, of which he is one of the main architects.

A ban from the FIA might also disqualify him from holding on to the chairmanship of Queens Park Rangers under Football League rules.
As it seeks to get to the bottom of how this situation was allowed to develop, it?s likely that the FIA will look into whether a team principal should be allowed also to be a driver manager, especially of drivers in his team. They may find that the compromising position this put his driver Nelson Piquet Jr in was a contributing factor to the accident plot happening.

Although he delegates much of the responsibility for looking after Mark Webber, Heikki Kovalainen and others, Briatore has a big hand in advising his drivers and a very good eye for a move.

Alonso has no choice but to attend the hearing as the holder of an FIA superlicence. Although the FIA investigators drew the conclusion that he had no knowledge of the plot, the World Council will ask him about it, but Gazzetta suggests that the risk for him is that he will be under pressure to answer questions relating to this and possibly other incidents in the past with the aim of condemning Briatore.

Ferrari has a seat on the World Council and has apparently decided not to attend. It?s a delicate situation for the team, as Luca di Montezemolo would not want to be put in the position of being part of the firing squad against his staunch FOTA ally Briatore.

Meanwhile Spanish motorsport figurehead Carlos Gracia has said that the FIA was wrong to offer Piquet immunity from prosecution, something which the majority of readers of this blog seem to believe.

?This kid, if it was up to me, wouldn?t be allowed to walk blind people on the sidewalk,? Gracia said on Spanish radio. ?It?s such yobbish behaviour from which he has also benefited, because, like he says in his sworn statement, he did it so he would get a contract renewal for 2009, and he will be paid until the end of the year. In that case this is a person should not only be sanctioned by the Council and the FIA, but he should also be prosecuted in an ordinary court.

?I found out through the press that Mr Nelsinho was going to get immunity. It would be a total shamelessness if this happened in the FIA.?
Gracia is part of Jean Todt?s ticket for FIA president, he was announced recently as a Vice president for sport.

Source
 
Hmm, I thought Alonso was cleared?
 
This is looking bad for Briatore. Is possible he ends up in jail? Or as he would call it "Is like dirty house, but not to live, is like place for bad people, you know? Bars and shit. Fuck."
 
This is looking bad for Briatore. Is possible he ends up in jail? Or as he would call it "Is like dirty house, but not to live, is like place for bad people, you know? Bars and shit. Fuck."

If his arse lands in Singapore at any time in the next 10 years, maybe. And also if Renault (a.k.a. Carlos Ghosn) or the Piquets file legal action against him.
 
If his arse lands in Singapore at any time in the next 10 years, maybe.


I read something about the possibility of extraditing him here to face charges. :blink::|
 
^... That's just Singapore being SO Singapore. I'm sure whatever country he's in will punish him just fine...
 
^... That's just Singapore being SO Singapore. I'm sure whatever country he's in will punish him just fine...
Yeah well I don't think it's true anyway, the journalist was just speculating.
 
Renault head: Briatore admitted responsibility

21 September 2009

Renault Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pelata has said that Flavio Briatore, former Team Principal of the manufacturer's Formula One team, believed that he held the greatest responsibility for the team's race-fixing scandal of last year before handing in his notice last Wednesday.

Having been at the centre of the episode which resulted in Nelson Piquet Jnr deliberately crashing his car into the Turn 17 wall during the Singapore Grand Prix last season, both Briatore and Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds left the team ahead of Monday's FIA hearing in Paris.

"Flavio Briatore considered he was morally responsible and resigned," Pelata explained to French radio station RTL. "We do not want the fault of two people reflecting upon the whole company and the entire Formula One team; I do not know all of the details but there was a fault and a fault requires a sanction."

The punishment in question will be revealed this week although the departures of the men involved could be the deciding factor as to whether Renault lands a large fine instead of complete expulsion from the sport. "We will know more about the details after the FIA hearing," Pelata continued. "The debate is not now. We will have it calmly.

"F1 is the world's most watched show and we must respect that."

Source
 
BBC.co.uk said:
Renault have been given a two-year suspended ban for their role in fixing last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
The team were called before governing body the FIA to answer charges they had asked driver Nelson Piquet Jr to crash to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win.
Former team boss Flavio Briatore has been banned from FIA sanctioned events for an unlimited period .
Renault's ex-engineering director Pat Symonds has also been excluded from F1 for five years.
The plan to deliberately crash was their idea, Piquet told the FIA.
Briatore and Symonds parted company with Renault last week at the same time as the French car giant said they would not contest the charges.
Source
 
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