I’m changing the subject of this blog a little for this post, as I think this is quite an intriguing subject, and one that the wider audience may well find interesting too.

Essentially, this post relates to Renault F1’s alleged conduct at last years Singapore Grand Prix (which they won, and was also sponsored by Renault’s key sponsor ING).

For those that don’t know, the inaugural F1 night race featured a safety car period at about third distance which involved Renault’s No 2 driver Nelson Piquet Jnr.  ”Conincidentally”, this crash occurred just after the No 1 driver Fernando Alonso’s out of the ordinary early pit stop.  The ensuing events meant that Alonso was able to build up a large lead, and then finally get Renault’s first win of the 2008 season.

Now, fast forward a year – Nelson Piquet has been sacked for not performing, and it’s widely known that the split was not the most amicable.  Piquet was well documented in his view of his manager, Flavio Briatore:

“I always believed that having a manager was being a part of a team and having a partner. A manager is supposed to encourage you, support you, and provide you with opportunities. In my case it was the opposite – Flavio Briatore was my executioner.”

So, it’s no surprise that new evidence happens to have come to light about an apparent bit of dirty dealings last year in Singapore.  At first we weren’t sure if this was from Piquet or not, but the timing kind of gave it away.

From what I understand, a meeting took place prior to the race between Piquet, Briatore, and Pat Symonds, the Renault F1 director of engineering.  In this meeting, Piquet, who doubted he would retain his race seat with the team, was asked if he would deliberately crash in order to help out Alonso.  Piquet obviously would have agreed as he would have been able to keep his race seat in an F1 car.

It would seem that more detailed information has also come out, Piquet having been later asked to crash on lap 13 or 14, at turn 17, once Alonso had made his stop.  This would have been the ideal time and place, due to the lack of cranes that could remove the car, therefore forcing the desired safety car period.

Of course, Briatore and Symonds both deny this, stating that the meeting did take place, but Piquet was the originator of the idea.

Another piece of evidence in the case is that of the car telemetry.  Normally when a car starts to oversteer, the driver will lift off briefly to catch the slide – however, in this case, Piquet kept his foot planted, a particularly unnatural thing for a driver to do.

So, overall, combine this evidence, and it looks like all the fingers are pointing at Renault as being a bunch of cheats, and much more so than the McLaren/Ferrari case of 2007, due to the fact that people’s safety was at risk.

Later this month, and coincidentally the week before the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix, there is a hearing due at the World Motor Sport Council where we will find out more, and see what kind of punishment will be handed out if they are found guilty.

Personally, if they are guilty, I think they should be taken to the f’in cleaners.

More information can be found here.

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