Team chief Flavio Briatore yesterday sensationally quit the Renault Formula One team, which has been hit by serious allegations of cheating at last year’s Grand Prix in Singapore, the team said in a statement.
Renault said in a short statement that Briatore and Pat Symonds, the director of engineering, had both left the team ahead of a meeting on Monday with the sport’s world ruling body, the FIA, to explain recent allegations of race-fixing.
The statement said: “The team announces that its team chief, Flavio Briatore, and its director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have quit the team.”
Renault have been summoned to appear before the FIA’s International Motor Sport Council in Paris on Monday to answer claims by Nelson Piquet Jr that he was asked by Renault to crash deliberately during the Singapore Grand Prix last year, so giving a race-winning advantage to his team-mate Spaniard Fernando Alonso. If Renault are found guilty of race-fixing, they could be expelled from the sport for the role they played in an affair which has been dubbed “crashgate.”
The team had denied all of the claims made against them by Piquet Jr, who was dismissed by the team in July after being told he had failed to perform to expectations.
But Renault yesterday appeared to partly admit some role in the controversy by adding in the statement they “would not contest the FIA’s recent allegations concerning the Singapore Grand Prix.”
The statement added: “Before participating at the FIA’s International Motor Sport Council hearing in Paris on September 21, the team will make no further commment.”
A report by the Times on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, said the FIA had offered Renault second-in-command immunity from punishment in exchange for full disclosure about crashgate.
The report said that Symonds was told that if he came clean over how and why Piquet Jr drove his car into the barriers in Singapore, he would escape sanctions.
LOTUS TO RETURN TO F1
Reuters, LONDON
Lotus, a glorious name from Formula One’s past, will return next year with a Malaysian-owned team replacing BMW-Sauber as the 13th entry on the starting grid.
The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement on Tuesday that, after due diligence and an intensive selection process, it had chosen Lotus F1 over two rival bids.
The new outfit will be a partnership between the Malaysian government and a consortium of Malaysian entrepreneurs and based initially in Britain with facilities also to be built at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit.
“The cars will be made in Malaysia, by Malaysians,” the Malaysian government said in a separate statement.
The vacancy arose after BMW announced they were withdrawing at the end of the season, following a path already trodden by Japan’s Honda.
The BMW team, due to be renamed after being sold to Swiss-based Qadbak Investments, was given a 14th slot as reserve if any other team pulls out, with the FIA also seeking to expand the grid to accommodate them.
Leading Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes will be Lotus team principal.
As part of its application to compete in next year’s championship, the Lotus team agreed an engine supply deal with Cosworth.
Lotus will initially be based in Norfolk, 16km from the original Lotus Cars factory in eastern England, but the future design, manufacturing and technical center will be purpose-built at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit.
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