Renault escaped severe punishment yesterday for ordering former driver Nelson Piquet Jr to deliberately crash, receiving only a suspended two-year ban from Formula One’s governing body.
Flavio Briatore, who quit as team principal last week, was banned indefinitely from any F1 activities by the World Motor Sport Council (WSMC). Engineering executive director Pat Symonds, who also left the French team last week, was banned for five years after expressing his “eternal regret and shame” that he participated in the conspiracy.
“We gave them a suspended sentence because Renault demonstrated that the team had no responsibility and the company even less,” FIA president Max Mosley said. “The penalty for Briatore is that he is no longer associated with the FIA series.”
FIA described the scandal as being of “unparalleled severity,” but the departure of Renault’s top two men meant the team avoided being thrown out of F1 or handed a heavy fine, although they will pay for the investigation.
“Renault F1’s breaches not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr himself,” FIA said.
“The World Motor Sport Council considers that offenses of this severity merit permanent disqualification from the FIA Formula One World Championship,” it said.
“However, having regard to the points in mitigation mentioned above and in particular the steps taken by Renault F1 to identify and address the failings within its team and condemn the actions of the individuals involved, the WMSC has decided to suspend Renault F1’s disqualification until the end of the 2011 season,” it said.
Renault team president Bernard Rey gave no response to a question about whether Renault would stay in the sport next season.
“We informed the FIA last week that we would not defend the charges and we accepted our responsibilities in relation to the incident in Singapore and we immediately took appropriate action inside the team,” Rey said.
“Today, we fully accept the decision of the council. We apologize unreservedly to the F1 community in relation to this unacceptable behavior,” he said.
Piquet, who was given immunity by FIA, was ordered to crash at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix to help Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso win.
Former world champion Alonso, who attended the hearing in Paris, was cleared of any wrongdoing.
“He answered all the questions and demonstrated that he had no responsibility in the case,” Mosley said.
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