Renault race-fixing at Singapore 2008

[Confused_Andy]

Pat to Brawn Would make a very experienced team...

[BreezyRacer]

Maybe it's possible that Renault needed a result to keep the team going and this is all they could come up with to win a race?? The Renault team has done quite a few "edgy" things of the last few years. For instance the time Alonso qualified on the pole with just enough fuel to make it to the pits. That was pretty stupid for a quick result too.

Certainly I'm not condoning it, just trying to figure out why they would go so far out on a limb to do this thing. And they had to know that the involved parties would hold it over their heads in the future.

[Conceptual]

Wow is all I have to say :^o


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjlE08MqeqE[/youtube]

So....effing.....hott.........................

[Conceptual]

Flavio to Ferrari and Domenicali out?

L:ooks like the silly season may just spill over into the rest of the paddock...

[Ted68]

Yeah, there ya go. Briatore, Symonds and Alonso to Ferrari in 2010. Just like Todt, Brawn and Schumacher from Benetton to Ferrari in 1997.

Edit: At least the FIA would let them keep their mass dampers in that case.

[ringo]

I can't believe it... crashing on purpose... see this Clicky... This is unprecedented. How could anyone stoop so low! It could even have affected the outcome of the championship. Such people have no place in Formula One.

indeed it did effect the WDC
it would have been an easy win for Massa
and he would have gone to the next race with 3 points lead, instead of 7 points behind
and in the end he lost the WDC by 1 point

No.. Hamilton would have been champion, Massa could still have well been in the same fuel rig accident later down in the race.

[ringo]

I can't believe it... crashing on purpose... see this Clicky... This is unprecedented. How could anyone stoop so low! It could even have affected the outcome of the championship. Such people have no place in Formula One.

indeed it did effect the WDC
it would have been an easy win for Massa
and he would have gone to the next race with 3 points lead, instead of 7 points behind
and in the end he lost the WDC by 1 point

No.. Hamilton would still have been champion, Massa could still have well been in the same fuel rig accident later down in the race.

[nipo]

With the departure of Flav and Pat it's quite obvious the race-fixing did happen - whether it happened exactly as Nelsinho depicted can be doubted, but it happened one way or another, and Flav and Pat knew about it and let it happen.

So how did it come to this? Here's my hypothesis:

SG GP 2008
- Fernando had a problem during qualifying, he found himself 15th on the grid instead of the front rows where he should be.
- He blamed his team for it and probably complained a lot, made a lot of noise.
- Flav had to give him some sort of comfort to keep him happy, so he called that meeting with Pat and Nelsinho.
- We are not sure if Fernando was in the meeting, but just to make a guess, he wasn't because he did not have to.
- NP Jr agreed to comply. He crashed his car at the right moment, and Fernando eventually won the race.

2009 Season
- NP Jr was signed with an option: he has to earn 50% of the points Fernando scored (or was it 40%? Doesn't matter, he scored zero anyway).
- All the time NP Sn was quite pissed at the way his son was handled by Flav.
- Race after race NP Jr failed to score.
- We might establish that Flav didn't treat NP Jr very nicely, having told him to crash last year and signed such a harsh contract with him.
- Increasingly it became obvious to the Piquet's that Flav is really going to exercise that option and fire NP Jr by mid-season.
- NP Sn starts threatening Flav: "If you dare wreck my son's career like this, I'll tell the world about Singapore last year".
- Flav probably didn't give a damn: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, tell them that, and your son will never race in any series for the rest of his life."

So Flav really wrecked NP Jr's career by dumping him mid-season.
So NP Sn kept his word.

I don't believe the idea of revealing the race-fixing popped up AFTER NP Jr got fired. NPs must have thought of and communicated to Flav all the time, because otherwise it would have required too much courage when you just got fired to pull off something like this. Not to mention that in revealing the race-fixing NP Jr's reputation would be completely destroyed.

What happened was: NPs threatened Flav, Flav didn't play ball, and both parties are burnt to ashes (maybe not so - Flav could just have a way of coming back).

This also fits into Flav's blackmail claims.

Anyway, the most important person in this saga, in my opinion, is Fernando Alonso.

I seem to remember this guy said over the radio something like "I feel a bit lonely" or "I don't feel as supported by the team as I would have liked" back in 2006, when he was NOT leading the race and losing to his teammate at that race (Fisi was in front). It wasn't a big deal really cos he was leading the championship if I remember right.

Then he switched to McLaren. However he's not given the expected No. 1 driver status and had to share stuff with a rookie. He got very upset with Hamilton and the management. It was very obvious and he was very vocal about it. It all made the news. Ultimately, he sold his team, giving information to FIA during Stepney-gate for immunity.

Flav obviously offered him No. 1 status at Renault and promised to treat him the way he desired. With this as a lure and his awkward position of having sold McLaren, he ditched the one year he still had to serve and came back to Renault. Nelson Piquet Junior would be the sacrifice.

And now we know that it went as far as having his teammate crash for him.

We can see how much this person, Fernando Alonso, demands priviledges within a team. He needs all the attention, all the good stuff, and he gets very upset if his teammate is doing better at any point of time. But then he is quick, so he can use that to find himself a place where he would be treated as king.

So after Michael Schumacher, we have Fernando Alonso, the new Mr. Give-It-All-To-Me... and probably a more obvious and vocal reincarnation of that.

Good luck Romain... [-o<

[Mr Alcatraz]

Anyway, the most important person in this saga, in my opinion, is Fernando Alonso.

I seem to remember this guy said over the radio something like "I feel a bit lonely" or "I don't feel as supported by the team as I would have liked" back in 2006, when he was NOT leading the race and losing to his teammate at that race (Fisi was in front). It wasn't a big deal really cos he was leading the championship if I remember right.

Then he switched to McLaren. However he's not given the expected No. 1 driver status and had to share stuff with a rookie. He got very upset with Hamilton and the management. It was very obvious and he was very vocal about it. It all made the news. Ultimately, he sold his team, giving information to FIA during Stepney-gate for immunity.

Flav obviously offered him No. 1 status at Renault and promised to treat him the way he desired. With this as a lure and his awkward position of having sold McLaren, he ditched the one year he still had to serve and came back to Renault. Nelson Piquet Junior would be the sacrifice.

And now we know that it went as far as having his teammate crash for him.

We can see how much this person, Fernando Alonso, demands priviledges within a team. He needs all the attention, all the good stuff, and he gets very upset if his teammate is doing better at any point of time. But then he is quick, so he can use that to find himself a place where he would be treated as king.

So after Michael Schumacher, we have Fernando Alonso, the new Mr. Give-It-All-To-Me... and probably a more obvious and vocal reincarnation of that.

Good luck Romain... [-o<

With all due respect;
I believe you are reading too much into Alonso's Psyche! JMO but I believe that Fred learned a great deal from the mistakes he made at McLaren!
He is still the most complete, and valuable driving commodity in F1.
That is golden!

Referring to him as the next "Mike" is a term of endearment!MHO

[andartop]

This thread provides lots of entertainment, not only for the huge irony behind the incident that is supposed to be its core subject ( NP being asked to crash ! ! ! ) but as an exercise in human ethics for wanna-be pshychologists as well:
It seems some people who would go ranting and pointing fingers whenever there is the mere suspicion that a certain Red team might have pulled off one of the "tricks" we should have been used to by now in F1 are of the opinion NP is but a "snitch" for doing what he did, and FA a "traitor" for doing something quite similar back during the Spygate saga.

I was just wondering whether there might have been other incidents in the past when someone crashed and his team mate benefited from it, and whether the FIA has checked the telemetry and interviewed people after those as well..

[xpensive]

Gotta hold my hands up here.


I thought the whole thing was ludicrous from the word go, and gave people on here a hard time for suggesting otherwise.


Turns out, it was me that was full of it.


Sorry folks!

Don't do that just yet kilcoo, nobody here knows for certain what this arrangement means, await Monday for evidence.

[Michiba]

wow, Nipo, that's a very long bow to draw...

and though Flav may have put the final nail in NP jr's career, the guy himself ruined it by not being able to drive.

and Piquet sr reminds me of a football dad giving his son's coach a bollocking for keeping him on the bench...

[timbo]

Gotta hold my hands up here.


I thought the whole thing was ludicrous from the word go, and gave people on here a hard time for suggesting otherwise.


Turns out, it was me that was full of it.


Sorry folks!

Don't do that just yet kilcoo, nobody here knows for certain what this arrangement means, await Monday for evidence.

As I understood press release there won't be anything on Renault's part and we already know everything FIA has to offer, aren't we?
Maybe Pat and Flavio would come up with something personally, who knows.

[ss.vamsikrishna]

how come partner in crime mr alonso nothing happens to him

[xpensive]

That is another question timbo, will they even be there, I wonder if there will be much of a hearing in the first place?