Renault bosses quit team
 

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...563078,00.html

Oooooooo!

I'm sure this will raise further questions into the long term future of Renault in F1!

Bad times

I'll second that. I think there will be more seismic aftershocks to this than when Toyota got chucked out of the WRC for running a dodgy turbo restrictor. To be honest, it's about what I expected of Briatore but I thought Symonds was always an OK chap. I've read the transcript of his interview with the FIA on autosport.com and he may as well have copped for it all there and then.

Briatore and Symonds have already quit apparently, NPJr has immunity, Alonzo denies any knowledge and everyone isa saying that the FIA shouldnt punish the 700+ workers for this little cover up.

Is there actually anyone left to punish?

I think, Patrick head and Briatore have fallen on the sword, to save the team, Briatore and Head are top men in the team, and they would of known this was going on, just like Ron Dennis should of known the cheating was going on.

As far as I am concerned, this is a show of guilt, and it is disgusting.

i think they have more likely left to avoid punishment themselves knowing they would be found guilty..now they have left the fia cant fine them or anything..disgusting really.

And then people are saying that REnault will get a huge fine probably.

So..what happens to that money? Does it go to the poor marshalls who had to get out there and rescue NPJr? Doubt it! lol

Normally I find F1 boring, but this year ive really enjoyed it. I just hope this doesnt end up as another case of a massive company buying their way out of trouble.

Real shame for F1, and interesting to think what might have happened in last years championship if this hadn't happened..... Could Mclaren or Ferrari have won the race?? We might have had a different world Champion for all we know!!

I think it's just so risky and am genuinely disgusted with Piquet as much as the team bosses - Any driver would surely know the risks involved in crashing on purpose, especially when it had to be bad enough to get the safety car out. I know people say "He had a gun to his head" but at that point he should have either walked away and told everyone what happened or just driven the race and refused to do it. Any professional driver has a responsibility to drive fair and not put others in danger like this on purpose, no matter what they're told to do by their team.

I would laugh if he now says all the other crashes he had were on purpose :lol: :lol:

Shame for F1 though, this is the last thing it needed after such a controversial year.

In Piquet Jnr's defence, it must've been a horrible situation to be in. To feel like he may lose his one chance of pursuing his lifelong dream, if he doesn't do exactly what Briatore says, must've put so much pressure on him. Yes, he in no way should've done it, but I do feel a little bit sorry for the guy. Especially now as he's pretty much unemployable in F1

...Ah well, he was crap anyway :thumbsup:

I'd love to know if Alonso did know about all this though

Exactly, he isn't good enough to be there anyway :lol:

You'd have thought Briatore would have been sh***ing his pants when he sacked Jnr though? Surely he had an idea that Jnr would mouth off about it???

I saw the F1 coverage and they went back to the end of that race and showed Alonso talking after the race to Flav and he was basically saying it was thanks to the safety car.....

It didn't seeeeem that he knew but equally he's proved to use fairly dirty tactics himself this last few years so I wouldn't put it past him!

A few hours offline and i miss all this!! Briatore always came across as an arrogant twit so i'm pleased he's gone. Jr wasn't good enough for F1 however he shouldn't have been put in that situation, i imagine it's hard enough to concentrate on driving one of those rockets without his boss coming on the radio with a mad idea.

[quote=DCM;287549]I think, Patrick head and Briatore have fallen on the sword, to save the team, Briatore and Head are top men in the team, and they would of known this was going on, just like Ron Dennis should of known the cheating was going on.

As far as I am concerned, this is a show of guilt, and it is disgusting.[/quote

Isn't Patrick Head at Williams?

yeah, Pat Symonds is the other guy from Renault...

Agree with Nick, it’s a real shame for F1, especially after the last few years events. Both Pat Symonds and Flav have had a long history of being dodgy so this isn’t too much of a surprise. It would be a shame if it caused Renault to pull out, and 700 odd people to lose their jobs though.

What happens to the criminal case Flav was pressing against Piquet now?

Should make for an interesting midweek motorsport show on Radio Le Mans tonight.

The fia evidence can be found here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/for...e-hearing.html

Doc 3 is about the best, pat really doesn't want to answer questions.

Just a thought. The FIA cant fine them or anything but can Piquet Jnr now sue flavio for slander. The lad told the truth and was called a liar, and was threatened with court action himself which now obviously cant go ahead.

I think it's unlikely that the legal charge on jr would go ahead - however it could. Wasn't the charge that he had attempted to bribe them?? If it was, then it is still possible that there is some truth in that - i.e telling flav that he would squeel if flav sacked him - both events we know happened.

Makes you wonder how Flav thought he could get away with it. I think the fia obviously think he was the ring leader - or it's him that they wanted rid of. Otherwise i wouldn't have thought they would have offered symonds immunity.

Still, as Cree said, Bad times.

There's more of this to come out yet.

Renault HASN'T admitted guilt, they've only so far said they won't contest the charges. Probably decided they can't fight the FIA and because of the way all the prosecution documents have been leaked all the damage has been done and there's alot of people (like most of you) who have already convicted them without hearing the defence.

So Max was always going to get Flav and I think it looks like Renault thought thier best course of action was to roll over and try to start fresh.

Symonds was until this one of the straightest guys in the pit lane- don't where the theory he's always been bent comes from?

There's alot of stuff that hasn't been said in defence and maybe it never will now, and the printed transcripts are not accurate in terms of content to the actual radio conversations and they way it's typed you really can't understand the flow of conversation or the people involved.

I don't think this is over- but it's a tragedy.

Technically, you're right, guilt hasn't been admitted. However, the reality is that it may as well have been (or at least in the eyes of 99% of people) - bearing in mind as you say it has been said that it won't be contested, and the 2 leading lights (who had been heavily implicated) have now "left" the company.

I agree with you on one point though, Pat Symonds has to my knowledge been known as one of the straightest guys in the pit - but then so was Nigel Stepney.

There is more to come though, as the team still have to take their punishment - what ever that may be. It was the team that was charged and not individuals, so in theory them leaving makes little difference. However, you wonder if it is a similar story to when Ron left Mclaren, if it appears that a new regime is in place, the hope is that they may be shown some leniency. We'll see I guess.

I think it will be strikingly similar to the way McLaren only got a slap on the wrist because Ron Dennis left.

Renault are surely hoping for the same.

I can't believe Max has managed to take down both Dennis and Flav before he lost out himself! Sweet revenge!

[quote=Nick Goodall;287552]Real shame for F1, and interesting to think what might have happened in last years championship if this hadn't happened..... Could Mclaren or Ferrari have won the race?? We might have had a different world Champion for all we know!!

It did,nt affect last years championship because LH still finished 3rd and massa out of the points.

I can understand people assuming Renault’s guilt. You’d think if they’re not guilty surely they’d at least contest the allegations the FIA presented, given how damaging they are. But, like said, we don't know everything, and probably never will.

I’ve never trusted the Symonds Flav partnership, it has lead to some of the more interesting rule breaking / twisting throughout the years, like the ’94 benetton, which effectively has TC. Removing the filters from the fuel re-fillers for the ‘94 season leading to the Verstappen fire. As Schumacher’s race engineer I find it difficult to believe Symonds wasn’t aware of these things, as they influenced race strategy so much. In recent years, as Renault, they’ve been found guilty of using McLaren’s intellectual property for their cars. As a director of engineering, you’d think he’d be aware (to an extent) of where his information/data is coming from.

This, to me, is why I call him as well as Flav dodgy characters.

The difference between this and Dennis leaving, is that Dennis didn't laeve because of the that situation. We all knew in the middle of the previous year that Dennis mentioned leaving when Hamilton won the championship.

There's been no sign of Flav leaving Renault at all.
Mainly because he's obviously be forced to leave by renault, rather than them sack him.

Flav should never be allowewd to run an F1 team again. He should stick to managing drivers, not teams. Look how much trouble he's been in before for cheating... and nearly costing Verstappen his life (as well his pit crew) when his car burst into flames at hockenheim due to the team fiddling with the refuelling rig to get fuel to flow faster!
At the end of the day, Symonds has done what he's been told to do by Flav. But the team should get some form of punishment, and Flav and Symonds get the fines.

Its all just a sorry state, once again for F1.

Pat Symonds is one of the straightest guys going and has been with the team for 30 years in all its guises (toleman,benetton and Renault) I do feel he had alot of pressure put upon him from above, and as he has said it was Piquet that put the idea to him!
Also Max has got what he wanted now, no Ron or Flavio to argue against, what he was after all long

What trouble has Flav been in before then Tel?

If there was anything significant surely he wouldn't be where he now?

Do you honestly think Flav even knows how a fuel rig works, let alone instructs guys how to tweak it? He was the guy that set the budgets, he has (had) no technical imput to the team at all.

One of my best mates was in that pit fire and he swears to me that the alleged tampering had nothing to do with causeing the spill, a notion that is backed up by the many other fuel spills (although none as disasterous) that happened in that era with the Intertechnique rigs.

Good to see the back of Briatore (again) in my opinion, but he'll no doubt be back at some point to rake in more cash from the F1 business. Can't stand the guy, he's almost as incomprehensible as Raikkonen!

I feel for Fernando Alonso - if he really was unaware of this situation (and why would he have been aware), he's found himself embroiled in another contentious issue not of his making.

If anyone's sitting on a Renault contract for 2010 I bet they're feeling sick!