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Renault not disputing charges


DerekJ

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[quote user="Clair"]I cannot quite believe this is for real... [blink][blink][blink]

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When I first heard of the accusation from Piquet I thought... surely not, can't be true.

I've got used to hearing about drugs in sport, footballers "diving", Harlequins blood cheating etc, but this takes it to another level in my mind. I find it amazing that a team would ask a driver to crash and equally amazing that the driver would agree to do it. It was a substantial crash, the driver could have been injured, others drivers injured, marshalls injured... or worse.  Sick, sick, sick!

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I think the sickest thing in this whole episode is how Briatore bullied Piquet to a point he was prepared to do anything. (With the recent Hamilton episode in mind) It does show the malleable state of mind Drivers find themselves in. Good riddance to Briatore and Bullies like him; I have to say I'm disappointed in Pat Symonds who I had a lot of respect for but once you become embroiled in this kind of stunt then you should pay the price. I have a lot more respect for Piquet now and for a young man who seemingly had lost everything he fought on and I hope he has at least got his self-respect back even maybe a bit more. As for poor old Reggie well what's the betting that they don't need any excuse to continue in the sport? Nobody wins this one[:(]
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[quote user="AnOther"]Certainly more stupid and dangerous but is it really any more distasteful then what Schumacher did at Monaco in 2006 ?

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I understand your point about that incident with Schumacher (not the only dubious bit of Schumacher  gamesmanship) but for me the Piquet incident is far worse. It appears that this was done in a planned way in advance of the race. Plenty of time to consider the potential results and morality.

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There is always a suspicion that cheating is taking place, but this, to me, is such an unprecedented deliberate manipulation of the results that it makes a mockery of F1 as a whole.

It is quite unbelievable that anyone would put his life at risk in order to garner favour from his boss.

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Rumours abound that Renault is looking to pull out of F1 anyway - and with their current success level who can blame them ? In which case what level of punishment would be meaningful ? Briatori and Symonds have been pushed onto their swords and banning them from participating in motorsport for n years would be difficult to enforce and probably breach their yooman rites. On the principle that a principal is liable for the torts of his agent perhaps fine Renault an amount equal to total expenditure on all forms of motor racing/development in 2009 or €100m whichever is greater ? That is the sort of deterrent that is required.

John

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Renault are supposed to have signed a deal to supply Williams with engines for next year, although as they have supplied other teams in the past without building cars, I wouldn't be surprised to see them walk away.

As for cheating, well, all the time I worked in F1, there were many stories circulating, but in connection with this? Which team were caught having taken the filter out of the refueling rig to get more fuel down the hose quicker? Which team were caught taken the spare car (instead of the 'a' car) down to post qauli' scrutineering after a suspiciously quick qauli' time? Which team were caught with embedded software concealed in their ECU? Which team were caught using tyres that were softened with chemicals? Which team were caught with a slightly irregular fuel? And although the team changed names a couple of times, who was in charge of Benetton and Renault (oh what a give away!) at the time. (Italian, initials FB) Me? No I am not surprised, hell, ask yourself who was a Benetton driver for a while with a knack for swerving into championship rivals in Oz in 1994...........

Of course now Flav' can go off and play with his other toy (because he certainly didn't understand F1 at all), Queens Park Rangers, but what happens if a QPR player scores an own goal!!!!!!!?????

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Now Briatore has lost his Scalextric, it looks like he is going to lose his Subbuteo too.

QPR owner Flavio Briatore faces being kicked out of the Loftus Road club following his departure from Formula 1 team Renault. Should F1 bosses decree that Briatore is no longer a "fit and proper person" to operate within their sport, he would have to relinquish his control of QPR as Football League rules state any shareholder or director must be removed if they are banned by a recognised sport's governing body.

Full story: The Sun (there will probably a more accurate report from a proper news media source other than the sun out there)

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I'm pretty puzzled by Alonso in this. The strategy is planned by a raft of lap top pilots, but the driver always, and I mean ALWAYS has a say. He wasn't the first to stop, but he was the first from that far back, and the general rule of thumb is the farther back on the grid, the more you carry. With what he started with he was only likely to move up three, maybe four places, but on a three stop, he'd never have kept them. Curiously, on a  very very light start, such as he had, the model shows he would move up three places, and would need several slow laps to conserve fuel so that a full tank would take him far enough ahead to retain his advantage, which is exactly what happened! Surely any driver would have questioned such a stratergy, because without the safety, it's obvious it wouldn't work...............

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This is what happens when you have businessmen in charge of teams. Flav knows bugger all about motor racing but knows plenty about making alot of money in doubtfull ways. F1 used to be led by enthusiasts who were in the sport because they loved racing cars. They were often ex drivers themselves. For Enzo Ferrari, Colin Chapman, Jack Brabham, Ken Tyrell, Frank Williams racing was what they wanted to do because they were passionate about it - they didn't consider it as a way of becoming rich. Sadly those days seem to be over. Goodby Flav, you won't be missed.

The only unanswered question now is; did Alonso know about it? Maybe we'll never know?

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