F1 » Lauda: Renault ‘fix’ worst thing to happen to F1

Little Nelson crashing in Singapore is serious cheating. But there is no way Renault could have been 100% sure that they would win the race after the accident.

Compare that to Senna crashing into Prost in the 1st corner of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix to guarantee himself the World Championship. This premeditated 'accident' is well documented and Senna had declared that he would do just that. Surely that was a more dangerous accident (full speed) which involved another car & another human. Actually, this holds true to Schumacher crashing into Hill and Villeneuve in 1994 and 1997: premeditated & dangerous accidents designed not only to skew the race results but the World Championships

yes kick them out and ban Briator for life and he should be jailed for it to, risking life and cheating millions of people.

Lets not forget the over the top $100m fine that McLaren got for their photocopying of data. This is far worse. The outcome will show the amount of bias against McLaren. If Renault get off with a slap on the wrist the anti McLaren conspiracy is true.

Again people are confusing the ING Renault Team with Renault: Only the team is subject to the decisions of the FIA, as far as I know, not Renault. The outcome of the hearing is therefore no less than the survival of the Enstone-based outfit and its 700 employees. Nobody wants this to vanish.

I believe the deal reached by Renault and the FIA is as follows: Renault sacks Briatore and Symonds, and refrains from disputing any of the Piquets' allegations.

Renault takes the blame, and withdraws from F1 racing either as from 2010 or even with immediate effect.

The fine will be more or less up to the value of the F1 Team, and David Richards will take it over ffrom Renault (£1) and pay the fine.

@Phil: I disagree with you: you will never eradicate the risk of seeing one driver screwing up, more or less intentionally, and crashing into another. Such drivers shall be punished, but it's nothing more than an athlete acting outside the rules of the game.

Here, we have a team manager instructing a driver to crash in order to try and fix a race: I find it really much much worse and serious. Whether or not the fix would work does not matter: it's the plot that requires a very strong reaction from the FIA.

Team orders are not welcome in motorsports, and this is the worst team order I have heard for more than 40 years of passion for motorsports.

All guilty people should be banned and sued.

While not condoning the Renault situation in any way, race fixing (team orders) have always been a part of F1.
what I find amazing is the fact that a driver deliberatly lieing to the stewards, to alter (fix) a result, seems to have been totally forgotten, In my opinion, this was an equally serious offence.

I've heard enough now.

This whole situation has been blown out of all proportion. What we have is a disgruntled ex employee blowing the whistle (either falsely or not) on something that's actually fairly innocuous.

It was an ingenious way to win a race. Brilliant, and I think most of the middle running teams (as Renault were last year) would take a crash in one car to win the race in the other. I for one think this is all part and parcel of F1.

Maximum punishment should be a fine of the prize money earned from constructors championship in 2008, and a one race ban for the team.

Renault weren't just cheating, they were endangering the lives of track marshals, spectators and drivers - not only Piquet, but anybody who could have hit the car's wreckage. While they were aided by the FIA's overuse of the 'safety' car, it's a complete corruption of the principles of F1, worse than Monaco 2006 due to its potential impact. At least Ferrari had earnt the 1-2 at Austria 2002 through their performance. This was done to keep Alonso with the team for 2009, and perhaps so that Briatore could satisfy his bosses within Renault itself that the taem should continue under him. Treachery of the highest order, and the Richards/£1/Renault fine outcome would be fair.

Selfquote: As Renault was considering getting out of F1 anyway, I would recommend Carlos Ghosn to:
- appear before the Council,
- explain that Renault is completely appalled to discover what Briatore and Symonds have done to F1, to the fans, to Renault,
- express the deepest regrets and apologies of Renault for that and, notify the immediate withdrawal of Renault, as self-inflicted punishment,
- express concerns for the hundreds of honest workers of the team, and propose to have the whole outfit taken over by D.Richards for £1, plus the fine that will be set by the Council,
- offer to collaborate with authorities in any law suit against "the fixers",
- get an engine supply deal with Prodrive

If FIA should take away the points from Ferdi and Ranault then FM is last years WDC.