Baseball has steroids, the NFL has the police blotter, and now Formula One has CrashGate.
Renault was hit with a suspended permanent ban yesterday by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), and disgraced ex-team boss Flavio Briatore was barred for life for race-fixing.
After a 90-minute hearing in Paris, the FIA World Motor Sport Council handed Renault a suspended ban until the end of the 2011 season. The team’s ex-engineering boss Pat Symonds received a five-year ban for attempting to fix last year’s Singapore Grand Prix by ordering driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash.
Piquet — the son of three-time world champ Nelson Piquet — escaped unpunished, granted immunity in exchange for his testimony. And that testimony, which will shake up the sport for years, got Briatore banned for life and branded persona non grata at all F1 events.
Briatore and Symonds left Renault last week, and Renault must adhere to all FIA rules over the next two years or face a permanent ban. Still, they could have been kicked out altogether or hit with a fine like the record $100 million McLaren paid in 2007 for a spying controversy.
“I think that we’ve cut out the bad part and things will now go on exactly as they should,” FIA president Max Mosley said. “I think we’ve demonstrated that we’ve dealt with it. I think it’s the right decision. I think the blame has been placed where the blame should be placed.”
That would be on Briatore. The 59-year-old Italian’s order to Piquet to crash — and the ensuing introduction of the safety car on the 13th lap — helped Renault’s Fernando Alonso win the race. Alonso had just made an early pit stop, and he was able to move up the field when the other cars had to refuel.
“I bitterly regret my actions to follow the orders I was given. I wish every day that I had not done it,” Piquet, 24, said in a statement. “Having dreamed of being a Formula One driver and having worked so hard to get there, I found myself at the mercy of Mr. Briatore. He had my future in his hands, but he cared nothing for it.
“Now that I am out of that situation I cannot believe that I agreed to the plan, but when it was put to me I felt that I was in no position to refuse. . . . I am so sorry to those who work in Formula One, the fans and the governing body. I do not expect this to be forgiven or forgotten, but at least now people can draw their conclusions based upon what really happened.”
Piquet called his situation at Renault “a nightmare,” joining before the 2008-09 season and getting fired in July.
“Renault F1’s breaches not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself,” the FIA said.