Renault shakeup.....

[bell]

Renault just released a statement stating they will not contest the fia allegations that the had piquet crash in singapore.......
And also that flabio and pat symons have left the team.....

Damn........didn't see that coming.....

[imcarthur]

A surprise, I agree. Maybe Renault decided to take the hit & move on. Since there is an auto maker in the background, a long protracted investigation would be worse for the brand. The silly season continues.

Ian

The press release - posted on the Official F1 site:

"The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

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

Before attending the hearing before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 21 September 2009, the team will not make any further comment."

Ian

[s_morrison57]

If they take the win away from FA does Massa win the title? Piquet will never drive again in F1, I never did like Flav and Alonso needs to stay clear of the B S , he's been at the center of the last 2 big cheating deals in F1 and is always the innocent guy. I say crap, the chin should lose his licience, life time ban.

[MotoSook]

http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5562506,00.html

Where's the order for Piquet to crash on purpose?

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."

[bell]

Yep......if that's an actual transcript then I'd say they didn't plan it......just worked out in their favor.
Even though flabio is an ass I don't think he should be gone, his personality makes renault what it is......
It's unfortunate for sure no matter how you look at it, for all parties involved....except piquet...

[MattKellett]

Originally Posted by s_morrison57

If they take the win away from FA does Massa win the title? Piquet will never drive again in F1, I never did like Flav and Alonso needs to stay clear of the B S , he's been at the center of the last 2 big cheating deals in F1 and is always the innocent guy. I say crap, the chin should lose his licience, life time ban.

Not sure how that would work, they might remove Alonso's points, but Hamilton would still be ahead of Massa in points.

The only way Massa would get ahead of Hamilton would be if the race was made null and void and I'm fairly certain that wouldn't happen, as this would then punish the other teams that weren't involved in the race fix. By that I mean teams that didn't have knowledge of Renault deciding to crash, if this is proven to be the case.

I also don't think F1's credibility would survive the change of Champion after all the results have been finalized. The FIA has enough problems to deal with, without the backlash that this would create.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

F1 is a friggin' joke these days. I still watch it though, mostly to do my part to keep interest in open-wheel GP racing alive.

[emcon5]

Plausible deniability.

All the other evidence seals the deal.

Like Piquet's statement:
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns21798.html

Pat Symonds' non statement:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78647
paraphrased: "I don't remember, it was Piquet's idea, I don't remember, I won't answer....."

Flavor Flavio's idiotic "If I tell you to rob a bank, and you rob a bank, is it still my fault?" comment,

Plus the telemetry from Piquet's car, you don't go full throttle to prevent a spin on a F1 car. He claimed and telemetry confirmed full throttle up to the point he hit the wall.

Add to that the fact that Alonso's fuel strategy made no sense. There is no reason to start as light as he did as far back as he was, on a track where passing was all but impossible.

As screwed over as he was, I am still surprised Piquet came forward. With the grid expanding next year, there should be some open seats for an experienced driver with a superlicense. I can't see anyone giving him a ride now.

[nostatic]

Looks like I better tivo F1 Debrief next week...

[MFAFF]

Originally Posted by MattKellett

Not sure how that would work, they might remove Alonso's points, but Hamilton would still be ahead of Massa in points.

At the moment the WDC is 'set in stone' once formally confirmed at the end of the season...that said a driver who was discovered to have 'cheated' would pose a problem...but the precedent here is MS in 1997 when he was stripped of second place.

After to strip FA of his win after all this time would require a lot more than what appears to be a team call....

That said...who knows.

[cairns]

"Where's the order for Piquet to crash on purpose?"

Actually the transcript of the radio communications does reveal quite a bit- although no one would be to stupid enough to say "Hey Nelson crash now please!". Read this:

http://axisofoversteer.com/blog/documents/Fit%20Of%20PK.pdf

[URY914]

They use code words. Like....

"OK, Nelson time to eat some lunch"

"lunch means "guard rail"

[emcon5]

From the PDF file above, this is pretty damning: