fast_freddy

Frankly, they should be penalized relatively the same amount as McLaren. Effectively any revenue they received as a result of what was gained last year and distributed to the other teams.

stuttgart46

+1, Renault as a company was represented by an unscupulous clown. Therefore, you fire the clown, take your lumps as a team/manufacturer and try rebuild your reputation.
I own a company and we are manufacturers of industrial equipment. If one of my employees does something to compromise the company's integrity than it falls on me for not having the right person in that position.

Bob Rouleau

I am that Alonzo has no fan club here, but it is far from clear to me that he had any prior knowledge of the cheat. As the saying goes, if you aren't cheating, you aren't racing.

I am not saying I endorse cheating. I don't. Looking back on F1, I recall relatively minor sanctions against Schumacher for taking out Damon Hill and a blatant attempt to deliberately hit Jacques Villeneuve. Then the incident at Monaco where he deliberately crashed to prevent anyone else from getting a final hot lap in qualifying. Those were deliberate race-fixing attempts as far as I'm concerned yet nobody was fired.

While many of you fixate on Alonzo in all this, I think the guy who will suffer most is Piquet. He gives every appearance of being a either a black-mailer or a stool-pigeon. Blackmail to hold his contract with Renault or, as revenge because they did not renew pretty much means his career is over. Let's not forget that he went along with the idea and admits to crashing his car.

fast_freddy

I concur about PK. As far as I'm concerned he is as guilty as Flava Flave. Sadly, it shows you how much 3rd tier drivers like PK are pawns and are only there for political or monetary reasons.

multi21

Bob, we fixate on Alonso because he is the benficiary of all this.

Piquet was a pawn who sold his soul in hopes of getting a contract renewal at the end of 2008.

Let's face it, Piquet should have never been in an F1 car to begin with. His name and backing from daddy got him there -- his lack of pace couldn't keep him there. Agreeing to the crash himself out to the risk of his own health was stupid.

As I've stated, Piquet should have parked the car on start finish after Alonso's pit stop and walked away from the car. Safety car come out. Everyone wonders what the hell is going on and when interviewed, Piquet tells everyone he was ordered to do something to bring out a safety car after Alonso's pit stop and that's exactly what he did. The only problem was that Piquet was under the impression that he was going to stay in F1.

ltc

Bob,
I find it hard to believe that Alonso would have gone with a 12 lap initial fuel load starting 15th. Many on the grid, after the race, questioned how such an unusual strategy could have worked beyond any reasonable expectation.
As a 2x WDC, and declared by some as a master of setup and development, he would have questioned it.
Symmonds and Briatore were above both teams and clearly (as we know today) in charge of the orchestration.
How could Alonso NOT know, given his position on the team as #1?

Odd, Blackmail to get out of his contact...reminds me of Alonso's behavior at McLaren a few years ago.

Chads996

+1 Never easy for whistle blowers. Good luck to him...sounds like he was stuck in a crappy position.

C.

Wreck Me Otter

Now...only if Bernie would disappear...

gums

Good memory, Bob, this is all quite true.

As for Piquet, I'll never miss that spoiled brat who never earned that seat and still felt too entitled to ever grant a decent interview.

smlporsche

I wonder if Briatore's super model wife will dump him???

Cory M

No, he's going to dump her once she gets into the third trimester.

Bob Rouleau

ltc - What I was trying to imply was whether Piquet threatened Renault with going public with his story if they did not renew his contract. After all, he admitted that he agreed to crash because he thought it would enhance his position within the team. It is unknown whether he did threaten them or not, but I imagine it is likely. Since they did not renew his contract he went public. Revenge? Perhaps, but at great cost to himself.

As to Alonza knowing .. that's speculation. It would not surprise me if the team decides what the fuel strategy is and the driver takes what he gets. Perhaps the low fuel load was an attempt to get a better qualifying position? I believe that Q3 requires that the car be fueled for the race. The fact that he qualified way back was not a fact during qualifying when the fuel load for Q3 was decided upon.

Regards,

ew928

He's still got Queens Park Rangers and all those fit long haired footballers (soccer playahs) for her to sample.

Bob Rouleau

I doubt Briatore would care. He has had the most remarkable succession of stunningly beautiful women for years now. It would be on to the next I bet.

Cory M

I read through the leaked radio communications, the long version. Alonso asked if the pit lane is closed several times when he sees the other drivers pitting after the safety car is out. Those drivers had to stop for fuel and were penalized later in the race. Alonso starts the race from the back of the grid on a very light fuel load, then pits 4 laps earlier than he has to without questioning it, then after the safety car comes out he's talking to the engineers to make sure pit lane is closed to his competitors. I would be very surprised if he had no idea something fishy was going on...