Tag: FIA

Renault F1 Crashgate

Posted on March 28, 2023

If you’ve been following motor racing, you will most probably have heard of the latest Formula One scandal, nicknamed Crashgate. Over the 2008 F1 Singapore GP, the Renault team comprising of Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr, qualified in 15th and 16th place and would normally not have any hopes of winning the race. As it happened, Piquet Jr intentionally crashed his car in Lap 14. His purpose of bringing out the safety car worked, as Alonso, having refueled earlier on, went on to take the lead and became the unlikely winner of the 1st ever night race in Formula One history.

But now the truth is out and the fall out over this scandal begins. Alonso has denied any …

Should Flavio Briatore Be Banned From Formula 1?

Posted on December 14, 2022

During the course of the 2009 Formula 1 season, a driver for the Renault team, Nelson Piquet, Jr, who had recently been released by the team, accused Renault team princpal Flavio Briatore of race fixing. Specifically, the dismissed Brazilian driver alleged the Briatore, and Renault engineering chier Pat Symonds, had coerced Piquet into deliberately crashing his car in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, in order to bring out a safety car. As a result of the safety car deployment, owing to the team’s pit stop strategy, Renault’s lead driver, two-time world champ Fernando Alonso, was able to vault to the race lead. Alonso eventually won the race.

Both Briatore and Symmonds initially denied the allegations, although Pat Symmonds at the …