11/23/24
September 21, 2009
FIA makes mockery of Formula One: For the race fixing, Renault have received barely a slap on the wrist, receiving a two year suspended ban. "The World Motor Sport Council considers Renault F1's breaches relating to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to be of unparalleled severity." Though not severe enough to receive an actual penalty of any real note it would appear. As expect, Symonds and Briatore are done with FIA sanctioned racing series.
posted by Drood to auto racing at 01:00 PM - 7 comments
Only bright spot: Fernando Alonso was found to have no involvement at all.
That's about the only crumb of comfort from yet another bullshit FIA "Extraordinary Meeting".
posted by Drood at 01:25 PM on September 21, 2009
Absolutely despicable. An absolute joke of a punishment. Well, you can't call it a punishment. Renault engaged in the most despicable, reprehensible incident F1 has ever known, and have gotten away with it.
What, you mean more despicable than the times Senna and Schumacher have cause crashes to win?
Don't get me wrong; I consider Renault's behaviour reprehensible. Putting the lives of drivers, track staff, and spectators at risk by engineering deliberate crashes should be abhorrent to anyone who cares about the sport. But drivers have done it before and escaped scot-free, so it's a little hysterical to claim it is without precedent.
posted by rodgerd at 05:33 PM on September 21, 2009
The punishment was fair.
Briatore and Symonds were banned. And Piquet is not a dangerous driver. This was a one-off thing.
Montoya was removed from F1 because he was deemed too dangerous for the sport. I know the official story is he "left to pursue another career direction", but don't believe everything you read. That was the bone they threw him: "You leave now and we will say you left on your terms."
Montoya was worthy of being kicked out of F1. And he was.
posted by The_Special_Juan at 05:56 PM on September 21, 2009
Rodgerd-- You are absolutely correct, the actions of drivers intentionally crashing their cars is just as serious and should have been met with the same punishment as Briatore and Symonds received today. Same goes for FIA presidents with nazi/s&m fetishes. The WMSC considers this "to be of unparalleled severity"??? I guess I have a longer memory than they do, and Schumacher and Senna both crashed cars to modify the outcome of a race without being kicked out of F1. Clearly the FIA is not as afraid of scandals right now as much as it is of losing another manufacturer. In a weird sort of way, we have Honda and BMW to thank for the pass Renault got today.
posted by eccsport78 at 06:46 PM on September 21, 2009
Wish I could say I was surprised by this "decision", but I am not. One month left of Max and hopefully Bernie is out soon after. The election for Max's position will be interesting. I hope Vatanen wins it, Todt will be more of the same. But the best interests of Max were met first then the sport came second.
posted by soocher at 03:44 PM on September 22, 2009
Interestingly, the football league has a rule that you're not allowed to own a team in their league if you're banned by any another sporting body.
Flavio is an owner at Queens Park Rangers...
posted by Mr Bismarck at 06:54 PM on September 22, 2009
What a bunch of shit. They wind up with a LESSER punishment than McLaren did for the idiot spying incident.
Disgusted with the spineless response to this from the FIA. Pathetic.
Basically you can put spectators and marshals at risk, fix the result of a race, engage in fraud (since with their fixing other teams lost money)... It's perfectly okay so long as you promise to not do it again and pay the FIA's costs. (Which I bet come out to significantly than Renault made in the wake of their win. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday and all that.)
Absolutely despicable. An absolute joke of a punishment. Well, you can't call it a punishment. Renault engaged in the most despicable, reprehensible incident F1 has ever known, and have gotten away with it.
Clearly the agenda here was for Mosley to take Briatore's head, at the expense of the integrity of the sport.
Fuck Max Mosley, fuck the FIA, you are spineless whores.