(Formula 1) Team admits to deliberately causing a crash, to be expelled?

[SirFozzie]

Formula One - Renault F1 Won’t Contest Cheating Charges - NYTimes.com

Just wow. I know F1 is big money, but... just.. wow.

Facing accusations that one of its drivers was ordered to crash in a Grand Prix race, the Renault team announced Wednesday that it would not dispute the allegations and that its top two directors would resign.

The governing body of world motor sports, the International Automobile Federation, or F.I.A., had been investigating accusations that Nelson Piquet Jr. was ordered to drive into a wall during the Singapore Grand Prix last year.

The F.I.A. investigators had concluded there was enough evidence for a hearing before its World Motor Sport Council, scheduled for Monday in Paris.

Renault had until late Wednesday to file its defense. On Wednesday morning it released a surprising statement.

“The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the F.I.A. concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix,” the team said in a statement. “It also wishes to state that its managing director, Flavio Briatore, and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team.”

Renault risks being expelled from Formula One at the hearing Monday.

Cheating is commonplace in motor sports, but recent cases have involved attempts to circumvent technical regulations. The sport’s previous big scandal involved the McLaren Mercedes team’s being charged for using secret technical data of the Ferrari team in 2007. The F.I.A. fined McLaren $100 million. Ordering a driver to crash was potentially life-threatening and takes the alleged offense to a new level.

The accusations first surfaced after Renault fired Piquet as a driver earlier this season. He responded by making accusations against the team.

His statement as well as many of the other papers accumulated by F.I.A. investigators, have been leaking out over the past week and were obtained by the International Herald Tribune on Sept. 10.

Renault’s statement Wednesday does not quite admit guilt and the team said it would not make any further comments until after the hearing Monday. But the team’s moves look like a tacit agreement that Piquet was telling the truth.

In his statement, Piquet outlined how the directors of the team had asked him to crash in Singapore to help the other Renault driver, Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race.

Piquet said he had been invited into Briatore’s office to discuss the crash with Briatore and Symonds before the race.

Piquet said that Symonds pointed out the precise corner where the crash should take place.

[Peregrine]

The craziest thing about all this is why the team fired the driver. You'd think after deliberately crashing as ordered, he'd have a job for life with them, to avoid this being revealed.

[Fidatelo]

Not to mention that any guy willing to crash a race car for you probably isn't living long anyways. Ask enough times and the problem just cleans itself up!

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

The craziest thing about all this is why the team fired the driver. You'd think after deliberately crashing as ordered, he'd have a job for life with them, to avoid this being revealed.

Plausible deniability. They aren't disputing that the crash was deliberate, but by firing the guy, they can claim they didn't order him to do it.

[RendeR]

Oversized go kart racing, redefining honor and integrity since 2009!