MOTOR SPORT RACE-FIXING SCANDAL: RENAULT YESTERDAY pinned the blame on Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds for the race-fixing scandal that has tarnished their name as senior executives refused to be drawn on the team's future in Formula One.
As the French carmaker embarked on a damage limitation exercise to cushion the impact on their reputation, it also emerged the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile (FIA) are considering changing their rules to avoid a repeat of the likely situation next week when the disgraced pair will avoid personal sanction for their role in the affair.
Renault’s chief operating officer Patrick Pelata admitted to French radio station RTL “there was a fault and a fault requires a sanction”.
“Flavio Briatore considered he was morally responsible and resigned. We will know more about the details after what will happen on Monday with the FIA,” he said.
“For the moment, we have assumptions but it is clear that basically there was a fault. We don’t like this, nor do we want a fault by two people to reflect upon the whole company and the entire Formula One team.”
But he refused to be drawn on whether the company would maintain a presence in Formula One beyond the end of the season, even if they escaped a ban on Monday. Speculation had surrounded their future intentions, even before the current controversy.
“This is not the debate today. We will have it calmly,” he said. “Formula One is the world’s most-watched show and you have to respect that. Formula One has been in the vanguard of progress for car technology. It is probably not the case at the moment, but it could be again and it is always what Renault have tried to do.”
Since Briatore and Symonds dramatically quit on Wednesday, effectively admitting they persuaded Nelson Piquet junior to crash deliberately during last year’s Singapore grand prix to hand an advantage to his team-mate Fernando Alonso, it is only the team who will face a World Motor Sport Council hearing in Paris on Monday as the FIA effectively has no power over the pair under the International Sporting Code.
Piquet had earlier been offered immunity in return for detailing the plot.
The 26-strong council, headed by FIA president Max Mosely, will decide on a suitable punishment for Renault after they declined to offer a defence to the allegations. The team could yet be suspended from the sport or, more likely, handed a huge fine.
The loophole also means Briatore’s stake in Queens Park Rangers is unlikely to come under Football League scrutiny under their fit and proper persons test. The League rules only permit them to act if an individual is banned by a recognised sporting body. “We will continue to monitor the situation at the FIA but will not speculate on future developments,” said a spokesman.
Despite being well-practised in dealing with the fall-out from successive scandals, the shockwaves from Renault’s effective admission of guilt continued to reverberate around the sport. Experts said most of Renault’s sponsors would be looking closely at Monday’s ruling. Their title sponsors ING are withdrawing from Formula One at the end of the season in any case.
“This is serious, it’s cheating. If you were a sponsor of Renault, would you want to continue with that sponsorship? There will be a reputational damage clause and they would be perfectly within their rights to terminate,” said Scott Garrett, a director at sponsorship agency Synergy and former head of marketing at Williams.
Jackie Stewart said: “There is something fundamentally rotten and wrong at the heart of Formula One.”
But former driver Eddie Irvine claimed it had been blown out of proportion. “In the past every team has done whatever it could to win – cheat, bend the rules, break the rules, sabotage opponents. This is just the FIA going on a crusade,” he told the BBC.
Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing, said the loss of Briatore’s colourful persona would be noticed. “Flavio has been one of the main characters in F1 for the past 20 years and his presence will be missed, I’m sure.” - Guardian Service
