Punishment decided in the F1 hearing yesterday
22nd September, 2009
The F1 hearing that took place yesterday has bought a lot of attention from all areas and it seems that most people were satisfied with the decision made and FIA president Max Mosley believes that Formula one can look to the future with optimism now.
This infamous ‘Crashgate’ that will be remembered for some time to come within the F1 industry saw a planned and intended crash made my Renault to allow one driver to benefit from the fault of another. The time line begins in September 2008, Nelson Piquet Jr who drives for Renault crashes on lap 13/14 which conveniently helped team mate Fernando Alonso to race ahead into the lead with a full tank and not surprisingly went on to win the race. On August 3rd 2009 Piquet was dropped from Renault after several struggling performances which fuelled the drivers anger making him tell the FIA of what had happened and on August 30th 2009 the FIA opened an investigation. On September 11th 2009 Renault tried to proceed with pressing charges against Piquet and his father for the allegations that they made and after refusing to contest race fixing charges on September 16th 2009, yesterday finally saw an appropriate punishment given to those in charge of the Crash gate fix.
Former Renault boss, Flavio Briatore, was given a life time ban from FIA-sanctioned events for causing the deliberate crash. Whilst the French team got off lightly with no points or financial penalties they are under the watchful eye for the next two years and if they breach any of the rules again will face immediate disqualification from the sport. Mosley went on to explain that, “The penalty given for Renault is disqualification, but suspended for two years, which means if they don’t do something silly in the next 2 years they don’t have a problem.”
Some who weren’t happy with the punishment believed that the French team got away lightly and some are questioning whether the team will remain in the sport that currently costs them £225 million a year. Max Mosley insisted that the team is still included in the sport and there are no signs that tell otherwise. It seems that with the help of those responsible coming clean, Renault may be able to mend their reputation and they have certainly gained leniency from the whole case so it seems will be able to make a speedy recovery from this drama!
Renault apologised profusely to both the FIA and the sport for the harm caused by its careless actions. The president of Renault F1 Bernard Rey went on to explain, “We fully support the decision made by the council. We apologise for such failure in front of the F1 community and hope we can put this behind us.”
By Gina
