Formula 1

[UnitedIreland]

The Renault thing is not good for F1. Renault will probably leave.

Personally, Monza was a great race. Barrichello won, closed up on Button. Hamilton crashed on the last lap, Kimi finished 3rd and the Force India's showed everyone that Spa wasn't a fluk!

Lotus back in F1, should be good. BMW have found a buyer! The FIA are now pushing for 14 teams, 28 cars on the grid!

The big four are pushing for 3 cars per team!!

[Seleukos]

Whats this I hear that an actual country is going to buy Sauber and create a team?

[Brusilov]

Whats this I hear that an actual country is going to buy Sauber and create a team?

No, the BMW Sauber team have been bought by a Swiss based foundation Qadbak Investments Ltd (according to Autosport) which represents the the interests of some MIddle East and European-based families.

They are the same company that bought Notts County a League Two football (soccer) club.

You may be thinking about Lotus. Proton owns Lotus. They aim to have a purpose built facility at the Sepang circuit. At the start the team will be run out of the RTN factory in Norfolk which was originally built by Toyota for an F1 programme and was used for the Bently Le Mans effort in 2001-2003 (also according to Autosport).

Once the Malaysian base is up and running Norfolk will used to run race operations.

The Mercedes buy-in of Brawn will be funded by Abu Dhabi investor Aabar. Mercedes will take over the shares from 2012 (it's all about their tie-in with McLaren).

[DAVIDE]

Renault and Briatore are innocent. Mosley is trying to punish one of FOTA bosses

[Brusilov]

I don't think Renault are innocent. Clearly something has happened - otherwise Pat Simmons would not have left the team and then been followed by Briatore. It may well be that Piquet proposed the accident and the team failed to stop him.

Briatore is still Nelson Piquet's manager and will get part of his income for the next 10 years or so.......

[Nouvelle Vague]

They're not even contesting the charges now. Only getting a lawyer in there to say the rest of the team had no idea what the 3 loonies where up too.

Hope the team at least stays in the championship for 2010.

[Brusilov]

It's a suspended ban for Renault.

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,189...574176,00.html

Also Flavio has been banned from FIA sanctioned events for an unlimited period and Pat Simmons from Formula 1 for 5 years

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/8266090.stm

[DAVIDE]

lol. simply ridiculous

[Seleukos]

Say by by to Renault. I cant imagine them coming back from that. A very very very very VERY harsh penalty. Simply ridiculous.

[Khazrak]

Renault and Briatore are innocent. Mosley is trying to punish one of FOTA bosses

hes gotten Ron, hes gotten Bria.... ill make bets that he'll go after Luca next

[Seleukos]

Mosley is trying to get Todt to replace him when he retires.

[Roman_Wolf]

this sucks. F1 is gonna be more crap than ever. I really wish that FOTA had went for the breakaway series.

[Brusilov]

hes gotten Ron, hes gotten Bria.... ill make bets that he'll go after Luca next

I think Ron Dennis and Flavio Briatore got themselves. Ronzo at least went on his own accord.

Briatore may also be in trouble over here with his part share of QPR (with Bernie). The Football Association has a rule that the owners cannot be involved in the sport if they have been banned by another sporting body.

Nelson Piquet Jnr want's back into F1 - surely, the only way that will happen is if daddy buys him a team?

[Seleukos]

The Renault ban damages my calm. Im steadily losing interest. All this drama and constant rule changing is getting annoying.

[Musthavename]

A very very very very VERY harsh penalty. Simply ridiculous.

Hang on, how the heck is it harsh? Apart from a damaged reputation, the Renault team haven't actually got any punishment out of this at all. All the blame is on Briatore and Symonds.

Personally, I think they picked on people instead of the team because if they had punished Renault meaningfully, they'd leave, and they can't afford that.

[DAVIDE]

- last saturday, according to what Italian and English newspapers released, Ecclestone, Mosley and Renault bosses went to dine together to discuss about secret things. Was the sentence already written?

- Renault doenst try to defend Briatore, maybe for the scare of FIA to ban Renault forever by FIA competitions

- Piquet Jr accused Briatore to have faken the Singapore race. In Singapore when Piquet went out, the laps remained were 40 and Alonso were last at that moment. So, did Briatore have paranormal capacities to predict Alonso won the race becoming first by the last position? why did Piquet waited 1 year to accuse Briatore? Is Piquet so stupid to go crashing in a wall risking the life, simply cuz someone gave an order from paddock?

- In the tribunal, Fia instead of calling Symonds which accused Briatore, they called Alonso. ?!!!?!?!!? Alonso which declared post tribunal, to have said just a yes in Tribunal. Nobody knows what has been asked to him in there

- Renault has been punished with a ridiculous disqualification. werent them guilty too? this smell like a cookie. Mclaren for spy story had to pay 200 millions to Ferrari. Renault accused for a 200.000 times worst crime than mclaren, will have to pay just a ridiculous amount of money

- Piquet Jr hasnt been punished at all

- Why the result of Singapore race hasnt been changed?

- Why FIA didnt release to public, the conversations between Briatore and Piquet made in Singapore race?

i'm not saying Briatore is a saint. He could be really guilty as not. But this sentence gives me a small of Mosley's vengeance against Fota. First Ron Dennis, now Briatore.. who's next? Montezemolo or Toyota?

[Juvenal]

This is the second time Renault have been let off.

Just after the McLaren fine, Renault were caught red-handed in a similar spying scandal and given a punishment of... nothing.

It's all just politics, don't mistake any of this for justice.

- Piquet Jr accused Briatore to have faken the Singapore race. In Singapore when Piquet went out, the laps remained were 40 and Alonso were last at that moment. So, did Briatore have paranormal capacities to predict Alonso won the race becoming first by the last position? why did Piquet waited 1 year to accuse Briatore? Is Piquet so stupid to go crashing in a wall risking the life, simply cuz someone gave an order from paddock?

It is fairly clear Renault are guilty. Piquet kept his drive as a reward for his action. He spilled the beans as soon as Briatore fired him this August.

F1 Grand Prix .com (excerpt)

Alonso's strategy required a crash between his pit stop and those of the other teams, which was extremely unlikely to happen given such a small window of opportunity. The fact that it did happen and that it was Alonso's team-mate who crashed is suspicious - and that was recognised as such at the time by people up and down the pitlane. There are reports that Felipe Massa was so irritated by what happened that he even confronted Briatore.

Piquet's Statement (excerpt)

7. The proposal to deliberately cause an accident was made to me shortly before the race took place, when I was summoned by Mr. Briatore and Mr. Symonds in Mr. Briatore's office. Mr. Symonds, in the presence of Mr. Briatore, asked me if I would be willing to sacrifice my race for the team by "causing a safety car". Every F1 race driver knows that the safety car is deployed on a track when there is an accident which leads to the track being blocked either by debris or a stationary car, and where it is difficult to recover a damaged car, as was the case here.

...

9. After the meeting with Mr. Symonds and Mr. Briatore, Mr. Symonds took me aside to a quiet corner and, using a map, pointed me to the exact corner of the track where I should crash. This corner was selected because the specific location of the track did not have any cranes that would allow a damaged car to be swiftly lifted off the track, nor did it have any side entrances to the track, which would allow a Safety Marshall to quickly move the damaged car away from the track. Therefore, it was felt that a crash in this specific position would be nearly certain to cause an obstruction on the track which would thus necessitate the deployment of a safety car in order to allow the track to be cleared and to ensure the safe continuation of the race.

10. Mr. Symonds also told me which exact lap to cause the incident upon, so that a strategy could deployed for my team-mate Mr. Fernando Alonso to refuel at the pit shortly before the deployment of the safety car, which he indeed did during lap twelve. The key to this strategy resided in the fact that the near-knowledge that the safety car would be deployed in lap thirteen/fourteen allowed the Team to start Mr. Alonso's car with an aggressive fuel strategy using a light car containing enough fuel to arrive at lap twelve, but not much more. This would allow Mr. Alonso to overtake as many (heavier) cars as possible, knowing that those cars would have difficulty catching up with him later in the race due to the later deployment of the safety car. This strategy was successful and Mr. Alonso won the 2008 Formula One Grand Prix of Singapore.

- Renault has been punished with a ridiculous disqualification. werent them guilty too? this smell like a cookie. Mclaren for spy story had to pay 200 millions to Ferrari. Renault accused for a 200.000 times worst crime than mclaren, will have to pay just a ridiculous amount of money

- Piquet Jr hasnt been punished at all

- Why the result of Singapore race hasnt been changed?

Renault have received no actual punishment, just a suspended ban.

There is no fine, Renault have been let off before (see above).

Piquet Jr negotiated immunity in return for his testimony. I don't imagine he has a future in F1 anyway.

The 2008 Championship is finished... too late to change it (legal reasons apparently).

[Brusilov]

I think the difference was that Renault 'came clean' and reported what had happened to the FIA. I think in their case they were able to prove that the McLaren data that had been acquired had not been used. The problem for McLaren was that they denied that they had used the information and then it became obvious that the information had been used - the test drivers were even discussing it over the radio......

The Benetton team (which became the Renault team) were caught in a few situations in the mid 90s. After the refueling fire at Hockenheim (with Jos Verstappen) it was found that Benetton had removed some washers(?) or filters from the re-fueling equipment. This resulted in the fuel flow increasing so their pit stops could be quicker. I think at the time it was stated that they had informed the FIA. The other time was when they were found to have a 'launch control' option buried in the software that could be selected by the driver. I believe the software was inspected and the feeling was that it was just redundant code that had not been removed (as a software developer I know this happens but if you want your code to run quickly you should remove all unused code).

I am sure that there is a lot that goes on in F1 that never comes to light. I am sure that there are some very interesting stories out there.

[DAVIDE]

This is the second time Renault have been let off.

Just after the McLaren fine, Renault were caught red-handed in a similar spying scandal and given a punishment of... nothing.

It's all just politics, don't mistake any of this for justice.


It is fairly clear Renault are guilty. Piquet kept his drive as a reward for his action. He spilled the beans as soon as Briatore fired him this August.

F1 Grand Prix .com (excerpt)




Piquet's Statement (excerpt)



Renault have received no actual punishment, just a suspended ban.

There is no fine, Renault have been let off before (see above).

Piquet Jr negotiated immunity in retur for his testimony. I don't imagine he has a future in F1 anyway.

The 2008 Championship is finished... too late to change it (legal reasons apparently).

Where are the proofs of Briatore's guilt? In a normal tribunal, the words of a pilot which had been fired month before counts as zero

A declaration released in agencies time ago:

Piquet: ""last august i asked Ecclestone "what do i have to to?". Bernie answered me " him"""" (Briatore).

[Juvenal]

Where are the proofs of Briatore's guilt? In a normal tribunal, the words of a pilot which had been fired month before counts as zero

It's all just politics, don't mistake any of this for justice.