It seems as if Renault have a charmed life. Before it was Renault the team went through a number of changes - its most famous incarnation being Benetton run by Flavio Briatore - and where there were consistent allegations of cheating which neither opponents or scrutineers could make stack up.
As Renault, again under Briatore, the team was involved in a spying scandal - but escaped without serious penalty. Two years later, similar events at McLaren resulted in a USD150 million fine.
Now, Renault have admitted that they cheated in last year's inaugural Singapore GP, the only night race on the calendar. It is accepted by the team that Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symons instructed junior driver Nelson Piquet Jr to crash his car so as to provide a safety car interlude for the benefit of his team-mate Fernando Alonso who was having a miserable season but showing rare good form that weekend.
The strategy was simple: Alonso put just enough fuel in his car to qualify at the top of the grid and then to hare off into the distance. It was calculated that, if he stopped for fuel on lap 12, he would come out at or near the front. His rivals would have to pit for fuel, allowing him to work his way back to the head of the field.
But what he really needed was a safety car period, one to two laps after his stop - and for it to last long enough for the leading cars to be forced to pit for fuel either during or immediately after the safety car period - during that time, the cars are all bunched up and so the whole field would pass as those who were front-running spent 30 seconds in the pit lane.
So, it has now been found, Piquet was instructed to crash at a place where there were less marshalls and less cranes to remove his car quickly: the longer the cars circulated behind the safety car, the better the strategy would work.
Documents published by the UK's Daily Mail show that Piquet drove the lap of his crash differently. He approached one corner both faster and away from the perfect line. This resulted in the car hitting the wall on the exit. Totally counter-intuitively Piquet kept the power on. It was still on after the initial impact and the car spat across the track hitting the opposite wall.
The track was littered with debris - both large pieces and tiny shards of razor-sharp carbon fibre which puncture tyres with ease.
Just a few months later, a small piece that fell from a Brawn bounced into the helmet of Filipe Massa with the consequences that have been well documented. There were much bigger pieces of Renault on the track after Piquet's incident. Just a week before the Massa incident, Henry Surtees was killed when a wheel from a crashed car hit him on the head. Piquet's wheels did not stay on.
The potential for catastrophe from the idea of a heavy crash, just after a nearly blind corner, was enormous. Although Piquet got out of the car, slightly staggering, it was clear that no marshalls could get to him before he did so. In fact, the radio shows him saying "sorry, sorry," and getting out of the car. Video footage shows him struggling to put the wheel back on, and staggering as he gets stands next to the car. Then he runs across the track, taking his cue from a marshall on the other side who waves him to an escape gate. This (You Tube) spectator video shows just how dangerous the situation was.
The World Motor Sport Council called the incident one of " unparalleled severity" which "not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself."
This, the WMSC said in a statement "merit permanent disqualification from the FIA Formula One World Championship."
But Renault had put a good case before it, the Council said. In particular, Renault had:
"- accepted, at the earliest practicable opportunity, that it committed the offences with which it was charged and cooperated fully with the FIA�s investigation; - confirmed that Mr. Briatore and Mr. Symonds were involved in the conspiracy and ensured that they left the team; - apologised unreservedly to the FIA and to the sport for the harm caused by its actions; - committed to paying the costs incurred by the FIA in its investigation; and- Renault (the parent company, as opposed to Renault F1) committed to making a significant contribution to FIA safety-related projects."
The result was that the ban was suspended for two years and no fine was imposed. The Council found that Alonso had nothing to do with the plot and for the sake of completeness expressed this so that no doubt may linger over his involvement. Piquet was found to have been a conspirator with Briatore and Symons but honoured the indemnity he had been afforded to ensure his co-operation.
As for Briatore and Symons, the former has been banned from involvement in international motorsport for "an unspecified period." But the order goes much further: he has been banned from management and even from circuits: "As regards Mr. Briatore, the World Motor Sport Council declares that, for an unlimited period, the FIA does not intend to sanction any International Event, Championship, Cup, Trophy, Challenge or Series involving Mr. Briatore in any capacity whatsoever, or grant any license to any Team or other entity engaging Mr. Briatore in any capacity whatsoever. It also hereby instructs all officials present at FIA-sanctioned events not to permit Mr. Briatore access to any areas under the FIA�s jurisdiction. Furthermore, it does not intend to renew any Superlicence granted to any driver who is associated (through a management contract or otherwise) with Mr. Briatore, or any entity or individual associated with Mr. Briatore. In determining that such instructions should be applicable for an unlimited period, the World Motor Sport Council has had regard not only to the severity of the breach in which Mr. Briatore was complicit but also to his actions in continuing to deny his participation in the breach despite all the evidence."
Symons has been banned from involvement with international motorsport for five years after he issued a formal apology prior to the hearing. With regard to him, the statement says "the World Motor Sport Council declares that, for a period of five years, the FIA does not intend to sanction any International Event, Championship, Cup, Trophy, Challenge or Series involving Mr. Symonds in any capacity whatsoever, or grant any license to any Team or other entity engaging Mr. Symonds in any capacity whatsoever. It hereby instructs, for a period of five years, all officials present at FIA-sanctioned events not to permit Mr. Symonds access to any areas under the FIA�s jurisdiction. In determining that such instructions should be effective for a period of five years the World Motor Sport Council has had regard:
(i) to Mr. Symonds� acceptance that he took part in the conspiracy; and
(ii) to his communication to the meeting of the World Motor Sport Council that it was to his �eternal regret and shame� that he participated in the conspiracy."
Many will question why Renault's points for the event have not been docked or even the team disqualified.
There would have been very different consequences to these two options. Disqualifying Alonso from the race would have moved all drivers up one place. Hamilton finished third, gaining six points. Massa finished 13th earning no points. Moving them both up one place would have given Hamilton two extra points. He would have then won the 2008 World Championship by three points not the one that he gained by Glock's last lap drama in the dying moments of the season. But it would have given Nico Rosberg his maiden victory and a boost to the Williams team.
Simply removing Alonso's points would not have changed the points position of the other drivers, nor their finishing order.
Whilst reviewing the points would have made good PR, in the real world, it would have made no difference to the outcome of either championship.
The damage to running orders was done and that could not be undone by removing points or disqualifying Renault's result. Trying to upset the result at this late stage and for such reasons would have meant asking the question "what would have happened if the crash had not taken place?"
That question would have been impossible to answer and so, on balance, it was best not to create the circumstances where it could be raised.
But have Renault escaped lightly?
Probably. A substantial fine would have been in line with penalties it has imposed on other teams in recent years - including Renault itself for a pit-lane cock up in which Alonso's right front wheel was not properly fixed. Certainly, the penalty seems positively light compared to that imposed on McLaren for spying on Ferrari - also by a person acting on his own and not under any instruction or authorisation from the team.
In April, McLaren were found guilty of lying over an overtaking move - and deliberately misleading stewards who investigated it. They were handed a three-race ban, suspended for a year. Interestingly, it arose out of an instruction from the team to Hamilton to give a different version of events from the truth. At that time, some commentators considered the sentence "lenient."
That opinion must now be reconsidered.
But casting back to the Singapore GP 2008, my race report focussed on the favours showed to Ferrari after dangerous pit lane driving by Massa and reported that Alonso had won "entirely on merit." Perhaps it was not entirely so - but the fact is that Alonso did, on the day (or, rather, on the night), drive a storming race. He may or may not have won as a result of the cheating, but the fact is that he pushed himself and his car around a brand new track with high and hard walls around most of it in a display of inch-perfect driving. That his win should be so open to question is as hard to stomach as the terrible fate that will now face Piquet as the man who blew the whistle - and who, one suspects, will find it hard to find a seat in top level motorsport any time soon, if ever.
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