Renault cheaters?

Moley

Moley

Moley

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For anyone who follows Formula One racing series things are getting very interesting right now as the Renault team has been accused of cheating in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix and enough evidence has now been gathered to warrant hauling them up in front of the Sports Ruling Council on charges.

I for one am not really surprised, I've always thought of Flavio Briatore (Renault team principle) as a bit of a slimey git and I wouldn't put it past him to have engineered a win by cheating.

If they are found guilty the sanctions could be immense - including a huge fine and disqualification from this years championship. Either one of which may lead Renault the car manufacturer to decide that F1 is no longer a good venture to be in and they may pull out.

What I find most interesting though is the potential ramifications of this whole issue including:

  • Fernando Alonso being branded a cheat and banned from driving just as he is due to go to Ferrari.
  • Nelson Piquet Jr being recognised as a whistlerblower and never getting another drive because no team can trust him.

What is potentially more explosive however, is that if Alonso is found to have cheated then he should lose his race win from Singapore - and the points that go with it.

EDITED: See my last post.

Admittedly I can't actually see this happening, but it would be interesting...

:D
 
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Wasn't the accusation that Piquet was instructed to take someone out of the race or am I remembering wrongly. So the team cheated to help Alonso get higher, but he didn't do anything except drive, he didn't directly do any cheating and unless theres radio chatter to prove otherwise they can't prove he knew about it.


Having a look at the race info Piquet hit a wall after ALonso pitted so the safety car came out screwing just about everyone and letting Alonso gain lots of places while closing the field right up.

The way it was worded when I first heard it, deliberate crash, I assumed he had "accidentally" knocked someone very important off the track which is a ridiculously dangerous way to cheat. Having Piquet crash on his own is far less dangerous but still a ridiculous level of cheating, but very easy for Alonso to not have known a thing about it.

Frankly if radio chatter does prove they asked him to do it during the race, or they eluded to putting a previously thought out plan into action or whatever, then the race should be taken away, they should be thrown out this year and probably shouldn't ever be allowed back until those responsible are removed from the team, IE the fat slimy git.


Alonso really didn't do much wrong, so a ban for him seems very harsh and because he did very little, no reason another team wouldn't take him on. As for Piquet, think he was rather done in F1 anyway, however if his whistleblowing gets rid of a team thats cheating to influence results in dangerous ways, its not exactly a bad thing. Also seems a bit of a joke he was fired for not being competitive when being asked to crash out of races on purpose :p
 
OK I've re-read all the stuff I had done before and I've found what it was that led me to believe that if this accident hadn't happened, Massa would likely be world champion now and NOT Hamilton:

Felipe Massa of Ferrari started from pole position. Driver's Championship leader Hamilton was second while reigning world champion Kimi Räikkönen qualified third. They continued in this order until Renault's Nelson Piquet, Jr. spun on lap 14, allegedly deliberately, bringing out the safety car. The leading drivers all pitted when the pit lane was opened. Massa prematurely left the pit box with his fuel hose still attached and dropped to last place. Rosberg led the race because he refuelled while the pit lane was closed, incurring a penalty.
Click to expand...

As you can see if the safety car hadn't been out there wouldn't have been the spurt of pitstops and Massa wouldn't have had his accident and been pushed back to last place instead of first. Easy to see how this one incident might have changed the course of last years world championship. But admittedly taking Alonso's points away from him makes no difference to the result.
 
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Well, apart from the way you're vigorously trying to shoehorn two separate incidents into one. But yeah sure, if it wasn't for that, the title was totally Massa's!

drunkenmaster said:
Wasn't the accusation that Piquet was instructed to take someone out of the race or am I remembering wrongly.
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Nah, it wasn't quite that severe.

Alonso was the first of the front-runners to come in and refuel. The accusation is that after he came out, Piquet was ordered to deliberately crash, so that the field would bunch right up behind the safety car. Only, having already pitted, Alonso could storm off into the lead while everyone else was busy refuelling.
 
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Holy cow, it's just been announced that Renault have admitted their guilt in the cheating row with Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore leaving the team with immediate effect!

Cheating gits!
 
philip2009 said:
Wonder how big the fine will be (assuming they don't get suspended or thrown out) ?
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As they are probably leaving Formula One now now matter what (there are enough other teams to fill the grid and Renault want out) the FIA can throw the book at them. BIG fine and disqualification from this years championship.

If Renault are kicked out, the points redistribution will be the interesting thing - I'm just off to work it out now....

EDIT: After taking a cursory glance at the race results, Alonso has gain Renault all of their points this year and if they were taken away Williams would seemly gain the most with Torro-Rosso getting a few too. Jenson Button would gain one point.
 
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Never liked Flavio Briatore. He is nothing but a big mouthed bully and now a liar too! Hope he gets fined too. Renault deserve to get at least banned for this year, all points etc stripped and a massive fine. F1 have to set an example here.
 
Is it really Renault's fault though? The evidence I've read (and Piquet's allegation) make this out to be a very secret deal between Piquet, Briatore, and Symonds. The radio transcripts seemed to show the latter two trying their best not to let anyone else in the team realise what their plan was.

So in effect, the guys that have already left Renault are the ones that should be penalised, not necessarily the team. Take away Alonso's win obviously, but I'm not too sure how much of a punishment the team would deserve now. I'd say ban the three of them from Formula 1 for a good couple of seasons, at the very least.
 
Moley said:
As they are probably leaving Formula One now now matter what (there are enough other teams to fill the grid and Renault want out) the FIA can throw the book at them. BIG fine and disqualification from this years championship.

If Renault are kicked out, the points redistribution will be the interesting thing - I'm just off to work it out now....

EDIT: After taking a cursory glance at the race results, Alonso has gain Renault all of their points this year and if they were taken away Williams would seemly gain the most with Torro-Rosso getting a few too. Jenson Button would gain one point.
Click to expand...

I dont believe they do re-distribute the points though

Renault may well end up with 0 this year - but no team / driver gets added points because Renault become irrelevant (well when McLaren where kicked out for Spygate I dont remember their points being given out to other teams)
 
Didn't McLaren lie to the FIA and then got fined the £50m? Then Renault told the truth and got dealt with lightly. This time they've done the same, admitted it happened and removed the two people left responsible for this. They've cleaned themselves up and so got treated "lightly" whereas McLaren lied and got utterly spanked.
 
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