Renault race-fixing at Singapore 2008

[nipo]

Notice how the official F1 site features a Renault on the front page, taken from the SG GP last year.

http://www.formula1.com/

Is that some sort of condolence to the manufacturer?

[pgj]

Small consolation though. It must be causing a lot of disquiet in the Renault Boardroom.

[Confused_Andy]

I know a links been posted but i wanted ot make it all nice and big...

The Times has published extracts of the radio communication and at one point Briatore is heard saying, "f****** hell ... my every f****** disgrace, f******, he's not a driver".

The transcript starts off with Symonds, Piquet and an engineer discussing the team's strategy.

Symonds: "I can tell you now we are not three-stopping.

Symonds: "Don't worry about fuel because I'm going to get him [Alonso] out of this traffic earlier than that."

Piquet: "What lap are we in, what lap are we in?"

Renault engineer: "He just asked: 'What lap are we in?'"

Symonds replies: "Yeah, tell him that he's about to complete lap eight."

Symonds adds. "No, just tell him, he is about, he's just completing, he's about to complete lap eight."

Later Symonds says: "Right, I'm going to... I think we're going to stop him just before we catch him [Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima, who was ahead of Alonso] and get him out of it, the reason being we've still got this worry on the fuel pump. It's only a couple of laps short. We're going to be stopping him early and we're going to go to lap 40."

Following Alonso's pit stop, Symonds tells to the engineer: "OK right, you've got to push him really bloody hard now. If he [Piquet] doesn't get past Barrichello, he's going nowhere, he's got to get past Barrichello this lap."

Briatore adds: "Tell him, push."

Piquet's race engineer: "Nelson, no excuses now, you've got to get past Barrichello. You've got four clicks straight-line advantage. Come on, you've got to push now, you must get past him."

The Brazilian puts his car in the wall a few minutes later at Turn 17.

Multiple voices: "Nelson's off. F****** hell. Nelson's had a crash. I would say that would be a red flag. It's huge [all speaking at the same time] .

Piquet: "Sorry guys. I had a little outing."

Engineer: "Is he all right, Is he all right?"

Symonds: "Ask him if he's all right."

Engineer: "Are you OK? Are you OK?"

Engineer: "Fernando's just gone past it."

Engineer: "OK, yellow flag."

Piquet: "Yeah, I hit my head in the back. I think I'm OK."

Engineer: "OK, understood."

Symonds: "Right [inaudible], stop him."

Engineer: "Safety car, safety car, safety car, safety car. Fernando, safety car, mixture three."

Symonds: "Tell him to be careful, turn 17 I think it is."

Engineer: "F****** hell that was a big shunt."

Briatore: "F****** hell ... my every f****** disgrace, f******, he's not a driver."

Symonds: "What position is Fernando in?"

Engineer: "Well, we were 20, and we're first guy to pick the safety car up."

Symonds: "Yeah, we're not ..."

Engineer: "He will get away past it but he's got to wait."

Briatore: "What position we are now in all this?"

Symonds replies: "To be honest, I don't know Flavio. It's got to have been good for Fernando. But I honestly don't know where he is."

It seems pretty ordinary to be honest, nothing suspicious going on unless they've all graduated from college with a degree in Drama... Piquet's the only one being weird "sorry little outing", sounds sarcastic dont you think.

[imightbewrong]

Holy crap, they just sacked Pat Symmonds and Flavio Briatore:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78668

Guess it was true then..

[SZ]

Wow. FIA-Flav 1-0.

[freedom_honda]

Wasn't expecting it to be this serious. Even Flavio is sacked. So i guess it must be true then.

[xpensive]

I don't think it necessarily mean that they are guilty, could be that Renault just wants to end this mess.

What's interesting is what it means for 2010?

[SZ]

True? Not sure.

Was Renault France told they could expect a year out if everyone at that meeting didn't walk? Good chance.

Were they gunning for Flav? You bet.

Probably some sort of muted fine on Monday... stripping of champ points for 08 etc...

[Miguel]

I don't understand. I've read the full transcripts (not the one posted by Confused_Andy, but the latest at planet-f1) and both Briatore and Symmonds seem surprised by the accident. And it's clear that they pit Alonso some laps earlier as soon as he catches Nakajima, because that will make him lose time and his tires are not up to an overtake attempt. Knowing that the train at the beginning totally broke their strategy, they switch to a two-stop strategy. All this seems reasonable. But then Renault fires Flavio and Pat.

I know nooooothing

EDIT: Renault without Pat loses like 50% of the appeal, at least to me.

[bazanaius]

I worry that this, following the cheating scandal of McLaren in Oz 09, sets a dangerous precedent for future accusations. Whenever a team is accused of anything by the FIA, they simply lose the top guys and get off with a smaller sentence - so, the FIA just accuse people of stuff and we never find out the truth.

I don't know either way whether they fixed the race, or who was guilty or whatever but I think it's important we find out. If Renault aren't contesting the case, does this mean we won't hear all the evidence?

[xpensive]

I think Renault made a deal with the Devil here, MrM's objective was to get rid of Briatore and he got that.

I guess Renault will be saved from further emarrassment, court hearings and a heavy fine/season-ban on Monday.

[WhiteBlue]

according to news reports the men have left the team.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125310086597715591.html

Associated Press

LONDON -- Renault said Wednesday managing director Flavio Briatore and engineering chief executive Pat Symonds are leaving the Formula One team, and that it won't dispute charges that Nelson Piquet Jr. was ordered to crash in a race.

Renault has been summoned to Paris by governing body FIA to answer a charge that Mr. Piquet was told to crash at last year's Singapore Grand Prix to improve teammate Fernando Alonso's chances of victory. The Spaniard won the race.

Renault said Wednesday it "will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix."

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

Copyright © 2009 Associated Press

[vyselegend]

I'm just stunt, realising all this crap is just the indirect consequence of hiring the wrong driver, for the wrong reasons...

Piquet never shone, even in testing, he was a crappy GP driver, was absolutely utter-crap for any PR tasks, had no skills at all when it comes to motivating the team and such, and isn't really rumored to be any good at setting up the car too.

Yet he was the chosen one, because he had the name of a 3 times world champ (who was a good driver but really is a piece of sh*t as an human being). He probably was bringing a few sponsors as well, and was a Brazilian, which pleased Renault's market's dept a lot...

Obiously one can argue that the Singapore race fix culprits are Flav & Pat, and that it could have occured with another puppet driver. But I tend to think it couldn't have even been thought about if the second driver was a respectable one, able to help the team by his driving skills.

Nelson Piquet Jr crashed his car 17 times in a carrer that counts 27 GPs. What exactly was the team supposed to wait from him?
I think Pat & Flav were pretty cynicals using him like that, "well, he's a good crasher, let's include this in our strategy..." It must have hurt Jr & father's ego a lot to realise that, hence the self destructing attack to bring the Renault's heads down.

I'm very sad to see those two figures leave Renault. Maybe I'd have preffered Renault to leave F1 (and supplying engines to Williams) than a Renault team without Symonds. After all the great work he've done in F1, to leave by the little door like a rober is a shame.

I hope Pat will rebound in a short time and comes to express his talent in an LMP1 effort, because that's were the regs allow some creativity nowadays. Since the great Paolo Catone has left Peugeot and a new car is to be build...

And Flav had a lot of flaws, but wow, I'm going to miss him a lot. F1 without Flav will taste so corporate...

[WhiteBlue]

I don't think it necessarily mean that they are guilty, could be that Renault just wants to end this mess.

Man, could that be denial syndrom?

[blobslosak]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 258987.stm