Interesting...! Singapore 2008 - Renault Conspiracy?

FIA to launch probe on '08 Singapore GP

By Jonathan Noble Sunday, August 30th 2009, 16:08 GMT http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78195


The FIA is to launch an investigation into the events at last year's Singapore Grand Prix, where Renault's Fernando Alonso claimed victory on the back of a crash by his team-mate Nelson Piquet.

Alonso's success was sealed by the timing of a safety car in the early stages of the inaugural event - which had been called out when Piquet crashed into the wall shortly after his team-mate stopped for fuel.

The timing of Piquet's crash prompted wild conspiracy theories that the Brazilian had been ordered to deliberately spin to help Renault take its first victory of the year. Piquet himself insisted at the time that the accident had been caused by him simply trying too hard.

"It was my mistake," said Piquet. "We tried two extreme strategies with Fernando quite short and me quite long in the hope of getting a safety car. If I hadn't crashed I would have been lucky with the safety car later in the race because I was very happy.

"We're always scraping the walls, and once you've touched the wall a little too much and lose control that's it."

It is understood, however, that fresh evidence about the events that took place in the race have now come to light - which has prompted the FIA to step in.

Piquet was dropped by Renault after this year's Hungarian Grand Prix, and has been outspoken in his criticisms of the outfit - and in particular team principal Flavio Briatore. It is not clear if the Brazilian himself has been a catalyst for the investigation, or if the evidence has come from elsewhere.

The FIA has not elaborated on the details of its inquiry, but a spokesperson confirmed to AUTOSPORT that an investigation was under way.

"The FIA can confirm that an investigation is underway regarding alleged events at a previous world championship race," said the spokesperson.

Should the FIA investigation suggest there is any evidence of foul play involved, then the governing body could call a hearing of the World Motor Sport Council to discuss the matter.

The greasy woman beater (with Brawns collusion) had M$ do it (crash) all the time when he raced Damon Hill back in the mid 90's.

M$ opened a gap Hill tried to go through, MS shunted him of the track (M$ was in the lead on points, Hill was the only challenger) happened to many times to count.

I have difficulty beleiving it....
But if true, Renault, Briatore and Friends should be banned for life !!

I remember watching the race and joking that it was a setup. Joking mind you. I find it hard to believe that it is true....so it must be true. "Where anything can happen and usually does." Thanks Murray

Massa confronted Briatore about Piquet crash

03/09/09 12:00 http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/090903120026.shtml

Felipe Massa suspected Nelson Piquet crashed deliberately at Singapore last year and confronted Flavio Briatore about the incident in person, it has emerged.

It had been presumed in recent days that the source of the accusation must have been Piquet and his famous father, still furious after being recently ousted by Renault boss Briatore. But reports this week suggest that Massa immediately suspected that Piquet had been asked to crash on purpose so that the safety car would emerge and the sister Renault of Fernando Alonso would win the race.

"He crashed in a very strange way," TV Globo commentator Reginaldo Leme is quoted as saying. "It struck me when I was talking recently with Felipe Massa. Felipe had gone to Briatore and said, 'This crash was not right, it happened because you wanted it to'.

Leme also said other drivers had been suspicious of the Piquet crash.

Massa had led comfortably from pole position in Singapore last September until the Piquet safety car, but when he made his pitstop he then famously drove away with the fuel hose still attached. He lost the championship to Lewis Hamilton by a single point.

E.A. CAPSIS International
Source: GMM







Looks like that bang on the head has brought some of Massa's subconscious memories flooding back...! What next...?

To all of you saying he would not do it, anyone remember M$ in qualifying at Monaco a couple of years back???????

Hey, Danny and srrh, how about reducing the size of your avs so I can read your posts? They spill over the text and make reading the first couple of sentences difficult if not impossible...

eso

May I remind you that M$ did not total his Ferrari in the process...
Piket could have gotten hurt badly...

Eso,
OK, I ll try.

Piket could have gotten hurt badly..

Doubtful. I remember seeing that crash and thinking at the time, "If only Danny and Srrh had bigger avatars maybe it would obscure the fact that this crashes timing is awfully helpful to Alonso."

Hey Gueze...

Their avatars are normal sized every single time I open a page. Maybe your computer hates you.

Actually, I was making a joke. But their avatars WERE oversized, and now are not. Kind of a dig at eso and his mac smugness.

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Guys they are still big on my screen, anything I can adjust?

Werner wrote:Guys they are still big on my screen, anything I can adjust?

I keep on getting e-mail on how to make "things" bigger...
I guess it works !!

LOL.

Well, I don't full screen my browser windows, and then the avs are too big. If I full screen, it's not a problem. I just figure that the first couple words out of DB and Srrh's fingers aren't really important.

Srrh wrote:

Werner wrote:Guys they are still big on my screen, anything I can adjust?

I keep on getting e-mail on how to make "things" bigger...
I guess it works !!

Ohhh, if you only knew!!!

A'hem...

Race-day meeting key to Renault case

By Jonathan "Knob" Noble and Michele Lostia Wednesday, September 9th 2009, 16:20 GMT http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78446

A meeting between Nelson Piquet, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds hours before last year's Singapore Grand Prix is central to the race fixing allegations surrounding the Renault team, AUTOSPORT has learned.

With the FIA's World Motor Sport Council due to meet on September 21 for Renault to answer charges that the team caused a deliberate crash in Singapore last year to help Fernando Alonso win, sources have confirmed for the first time background details of the case.

AUTOSPORT understands that key to what happened in the race is the discussion that took place in one of Renault's offices at the Singapore track on the Sunday, where race tactics were discussed between Piquet, team principal Briatore and director of engineering Symonds.

Sources claim that in evidence submitted to the FIA by Nelson Piquet, the Brazilian driver says he was asked by Briatore and Symonds to crash deliberately early in the race so as to help Alonso win.

Piquet says that he agreed to do so because he felt uncomfortable about his situation at the team, with Renault having not renewed his contract for 2009 at that time - and Briatore was stalling on making a firm commitment. Piquet suggests that he only went ahead and caused the accident because he felt he would be rewarded for his actions.

In his evidence, Piquet claims that he was taken aside by Symonds after the first meeting and instructed that he should crash on lap 13 or 14, shortly after Alonso's scheduled first stop, at Turn 17.

The reason this part of the track was singled out was because there were no cranes present there to lift the car away, so any accident would virtually guarantee a safety car.

Piquet's claims have, however, been denied by both Briatore and Symonds in documents that are believed to have been submitted with the FIA. Although they confirm that the meeting between the three of them took place, both suggest that it was Piquet's own suggestion to cause an accident.

Sources claim that the Singapore race-fix matter came to light on July 26 - the day of Piquet's last race for Renault in Hungary - when his father Nelson contacted FIA president Max Mosley to make him aware of what had happened.

Piquet Jr. then visited the FIA's headquarters in Paris on July 30 to present a statement to FIA representatives, believed to be stewards' advisor Alan Donnelly, and external investigators from the Quest agency.

Following Piquet's testimony, the three stewards from the Singapore Grand Prix, plus two external investigators from Quest, were flown to the Belgian Grand Prix to conduct interviews with Renault representatives.

A report in Italian magazine Autosprint also suggests that telemetry data from Piquet's car has emerged as another reason why the matter has gone to the WMSC.

At Turn 17 where Piquet crashed, normally the rear wheels of the Renault would lose grip on the exit - requiring the driver to ease off the throttle briefly. However, on the lap he crashed, Piquet kept accelerating even though the rear wheels had lost grip.

Briatore is reported to have claimed that he was: "a victim of extortion by the Piquet family.

"I confirm the meeting with Piquet on Sunday morning, but nothing like that was ever talked about. I also remember that Piquet at Singapore was in a very fragile state of mind. Besides that, there are the audio recordings where I express disappointment when I see on the screens that Piquet had crashed."

Symonds is also reported as saying: "It's true, during the Sunday meeting with Piquet the issue of deliberately causing a SC deployment came up, but it was proposed by Piquet himself. It was just a conversation."

Renault has said it will not comment on the matter officially before the WMSC hearing later this month.








He said, she said...!


Right...so, back on-topic.... DB & Srrh - your avatars are too big, both in IE7 and also in Firefox.

Note that Flavio said nothing of the sort was discussed, now Symonds is claiming something was brought up.

At Turn 17 where Piquet crashed, normally the rear wheels of the Renault would lose grip on the exit - requiring the driver to ease off the throttle briefly. However, on the lap he crashed, Piquet kept accelerating even though the rear wheels had lost grip.

Now that could be interesting.

If Piquet proposed it in a meeting before the race and then executed his plan during the race then why didn't Flav and Pat go to the FIA straight after the race?

faaaak

looks like flabby is in deep shit.

Eso, Werner and others, try using 1280x600 to 800 (display resolution). i have no problem with DB's and Srrh's avatars.

da silva wrote:If Piquet proposed it in a meeting before the race and then executed his plan during the race then why didn't Flav and Pat go to the FIA straight after the race?

This is another Mclaren deal. However, Ron at least called Max in to hear it.

Wow, well then it was definitely fixed by someone, either Piquet alone or the team.

This should get even uglier, I bet.

This is really disappointing.

But hey, OK, let's say that Renault is retroactively dq'd from that race, does that make Flippy the current WDC?

Also, with Briatore talking about extortion, makes me wonder if Dad Piquet tried to keep juniors job by threatening to take this public.

rob wrote:looks like flabby is in deep shit.

In honour of the recently deceased Flubberhound (https://shamucroaks.forumotion.net/motorsport-f13/btcc-welcomes-an-old-hand-t37.htm), I suggest the term "Flubbigate"...

Now, where's that "Flubberghasted" emoticon got to...

rob wrote:Eso, Werner and others, try using 1280x600 to 800 (display resolution). i have no problem with DB's and Srrh's avatars.

Aaaaaah - I think I've got it...! Some of you gud 'ole boys have WIDESCREEN monitors...? In which case, the avatars would look "normal".
But maybe for us poor luddites that have standard 19" etc monitors, the avatars encroach...?

Just a thought...

Commenting on team boss Briatore, Alonso added: "He's always been a nice boss with me. A friend, he supports my career always. Flavio is one of the good people here."


From the dive, commenting on the scandal and his boss.

Hee hee hee ha ha he hee ha hee hee

rob wrote:looks like flabby is in deep shit.

Eso, Werner and others, try using 1280x600 to 800 (display resolution). i have no problem with DB's and Srrh's avatars.

Thanks Rob that worked, but now everything is smaller!