(Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
At the FIA hearing into the alleged race-fixing incident at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, where it was found that—on the orders of his Team Principal, Flavio Briatore, and Chief Engineer, Pat Symonds—Nelson Piquet, Jr. deliberately crashed in order to generate a Safety Car period that benefited his teammate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race.
The result of the hearing was that Briatore and Symonds were banned from appearing at FIA-sanctioned events indefinitely and for five years respectively, and the Renault F1 Team was given a ban from Formula 1, suspended for two years.
Many commentators have derided the penalty imposed on Renault as being a mere slap on the wrist and compared it with the sanctions that McLaren had imposed on them following a hearing into industrial espionage that included a fine of $100 million.
They suggested that a similar penalty should have been imposed on Renault, as the severity of the infringement was much worse, and included compromising the safety of Piquet, other drivers, and track workers by deliberately causing an accident. Among them is Damon Hill, who described the outcome as “a crying shame for the sport” and implied that there were political motivations for lenient treatment of Renault.
Yet, imposing a severe penalty on Renault would have been wrong for several reasons.
Firstly, there was no evidence that the wider team were aware of the plan hatched between Briatore, Symonds and Piquet. One other person, known as “Witness X” according to the BBC Sport website, was present when the possibility and details were mooted.
Radio communications between team members during the race (as published in Autosport, 10th Sept.) show that the call to bring Alonso in early was a surprise to the pit crew, and Alonso’s chief mechanic questioned Symonds on the strategy. After the verdict was announced, and in response to the apparent leniency afforded Renault, Max Mosley noted that “because Renault have demonstrated that they had absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place it would be wrong in the circumstances to impose an immediate penalty."
Secondly, even though the FIA hearing found that Renault were not specifically responsible for the incident, and that it was limited to a very small group of employees, the suspended ban sends a very clear and legal message to the team that no matter whether a link to the wider team can be found, should something similar happen in future the ban would take immediate effect. This links Renault’s liability into ensuring there is no recurrence.
Renault themselves issued a statement saying that "Renault F1 had no reason to believe that the conspirators were capable of this kind of behaviour. Clearly the conspirators acted against the interests of Renault F1 and the sport generally.
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