Post by QPR Report on Sept 8, 2009 7:02:14 GMT
From The Times September 8, 2009
Bloodgate with real blood: Renault accused of dicing with death - Edward Gorman, Motor Racing Correspondent
The latest allegation to hit Formula One, that Nelson Piquet was ordered to crash his car in Singapore, could not be more serious If you thought the “Bloodgate” scandal in rugby union was a cynical and premeditated attempt to cheat, you may have to find a new vocabulary for the allegation facing Renault, which threatens the biggest cheating crisis in the history of Formula One.
The sport always likes to do everything just that little bit better and more extravagantly than any other sport and the latest scandal is no exception. In Bloodgate, Tom Williams, the Harlequins player, was told to fake a blood injury so that the team could replace him and improve their chances of winning. In the case of Renault, the allegation is — and one must stress that, at this stage, it remains nothing more than an allegation — that the team asked Nelson Piquet Jr, their young driver, to crash during the Singapore Grand Prix last year to help Fernando Alonso, his team-mate, to win that race.
A similar strategy, you may think. But, in reality, this is a far more serious issue because Formula One is a dangerous sport and anything that compromises safety has to be treated with the utmost severity. In the case of Harlequins, there was no real danger to Williams, even when he asked a doctor to cut the inside of his mouth to help to cover up what had gone on on the pitch. The allegation against Renault is that the team “conspired”, in the words of the FIA, the governing body, with their driver to have him take a course of action that not only put his own life at risk, but those of other drivers, marshals and spectators.
If Renault did ask him to crash, the team were taking an enormous risk by unleashing forces that they could not possibly control and the FIA is aware of its duty of care to the potential victims in these circumstances.
What happened was that Piquet managed to smash up his car on lap 14 of the 61-lap race on a part of the track where drivers following him could avoid the debris. But that was mere luck. The accident brought out the safety car, which the charges against Renault suggest was exactly what the team intended because, alone among the rest of the field, Alonso had by that stage already pitted for fuel and was able to vault to the front.
The claims against Renault are believed to have come from sources close to Piquet in the wake of his dismissal from the team at the end of July, after 1½ difficult seasons in which he struggled to make the grade. Even in Formula One, which has seen its full gamut of scandal, cheating and otherwise in recent years, there has been a collective refusal to believe that this story could be true.
Perhaps, it is argued in the paddock, this is simply a disaffected young driver trying to get his own back on an organisation that sacked him and, even if there is any truth in the claims, no one could prove it.
But the signs are that some of the evidence gathered in a subsequent FIA investigation may back up the story and that the governing body is not just going through the motions as it prepares to review the case before its World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in Paris in two weeks’ time.
Formula One is steeped in its own dark politics and alliances and this case comes against a typically complex background. Max Mosley is about to retire as FIA president after being responsible for the rules of the sport for two decades, having been forced out by a revolt from the teams over his plans for a budget cap.
Flavio Briatore, the Renault team principal, who has told friends that he had no idea about any scheme to cheat in Singapore, was a leading light in the teams’ organisation that brought to an end Mosley’s reign. But he is also a great friend of Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s commercial rights-holder, who has considerable influence with Mosley and the WMSC. There is, thus, plenty of scope for “carpets” and “brushes”.
All of this, however, must be put to one side and the case considered on its own merits. If Renault are cleared, that is one thing. If the allegation is proved, then Mosley has an excellent opportunity to do the right thing by the sport and punish the perpetrators.
There is talk that the team could be banned. Yet if there was a conspiracy, this must, by its very nature, have involved only a few individuals. There is an argument to punish only those directly in the know and not put hundreds of other people, who knew nothing about it, out of work.
And what of Piquet? If there was a conspiracy was he a willing part of it, or should he be seen as a whistleblower? Williams escaped the full rigour of rugby’s law because he co-operated with the authorities. Piquet may be treated in the same way by the FIA, but whether he will get another drive in Formula One is another matter.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article6825285.ece