That punishment, for those who haven’t seen it, is a permanent disqualification from the Formula One world championship, suspended until the end of the 2011 season. The disqualification will be enforced if, and only if, Renault commit another offence of comparable severity before then. When you consider that the FIA called this race-fixing offence ‘of unparallelled severity,’ they’d really need to pull a rabbit out of the hat to get themselves kicked out for good.
There is no financial penalty, which has led some to draw comparison with the $100million fine thrown at McLaren during Spygate in 2007 and conclude that Renault got off lightly. Frankly, they’re probably right, though the two cases aren’t exactly the same; Renault were open once it became clear the charges were fair and took steps to remove those responsible, while McLaren protested their innocence to the point of lying to the FIA and were only found out at a second hearing, having been cleared first time around. The suspended ban is designed to provide some kind of threat while also ensuring that the French manufacturer remains in the sport, at a time when F1 can ill afford to lose another manufacturer in the wake of BMW’s withdrawal.
It also, and I’ll leave you to determine exactly how much weight to put on this, ensures that the teams currently negotiating for a supply of Renault’s engines for next year don’t all have to look elsewhere at short notice in a paddock not presently overflowing with competitive engine suppliers.
Heavier punishments have been dealt out to the individuals behind the crash conspiracy, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds. Symonds is barred from involvement with or participation in any FIA-sanctioned championship for the next 5 years, an exclusion that will cut to the bone of one of the paddock’s genuine racers, a man for whom this episode appears entirely out of character.
Briatore, who denied wrongdoing as well as any knowledge of the scheme, has a lifetime ban of the same nature as that given to Symonds. He must also hand over control of the careers of several current top-line drivers, as the stable of drivers he manages will not be granted a licence to race should they continue working with Flavio. Flavio is first and foremost a businessman, not a racer, and has said himself that at 59 years of age he doesn’t need the Renault salary. One would expect him to be more concerned about the potential knock-on effects of the case on his chairmanship of Queens Park Rangers football club, and how much of his shareholding he’ll have to give up. There are other challenges out there for him, and he will find them.
The sport, then, can be seen to have been cleansed of the wrong-doers while maintaining the jobs and, most importantly for the FIA, involvement in the sport of those at Renault who weren’t connected to the race-fixing plans. The man escaping punishment today, Nelson Piquet Jr, was granted immunity from FIA prosecution last week but has surely removed himself from the sport in any case, and appears to know it. Over the last few weeks, team bosses up and down the paddock have learned that in addition to being off the pace and prone to crashing, Nelsinho has a tendency towards desertion when the chips are down. A leader of men he is not, but a weak-willed man of questionable morals, spoilt by a father rich enough to buy him the best equipment throughout his early career? Surely.
This also gives Max Mosley his last hurrah before he hands over the FIA presidency next month. Which recently-formed organisation, made up of representatives from each Formula One team, had Briatore as a major player, second in command to its Italian figurehead? Yup, that one.
