Renault pleads its defense

Renault will know its sanction by tomorrow Tuesday in the affair of the intentional crash of Neslon Piquet Jr in Singapore, in 2008. While the drivers will return to this track at the end of the week for the 14th meeting of the season Formula 1, it is in Paris that the future of Renault F1 Team, in front of Max Mosley and the 25 other members of the World Council. This will certainly be the last major issue for the Briton before his successor is elected on October 23.

Because this extraordinary meeting of the World Council is much more important than the last appearance of the Renault F1 Team before the governing bodies of the FIA. On August 17, the Franco-British team had already come to Paris to defend itself from the loss of a wheel. Fernando Alonso during the Hungarian Grand Prix. Renault obtained satisfaction by being able to participate in the European Grand Prix, in Valencia, a few days later.

This time, the affair is out of all proportion. Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have already left and the expected sanction should be much heavier than a simple financial sanction of 50 euros. In the espionage affair of Ferrari, the stable McLaren had received a financial penalty of 100 million euros. If Renault received a comparable fine, the Renault F1 Team would then have to report it to the general management of the French manufacturer. And, at a time when the financial crisis has not left the automobile sector, such a fine could be the argument for the manufacturer to withdraw from Formula 1.

This Monday, Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr arrived at the FIA ​​headquarters, followed by the Renault team staff, including Bernard Rey, president of the Renault F1 Team, team lawyers, Charlie Whiting, delegate Technical Director of the FIA, and Max Mosley, President of the FIA.

If the FIA ​​wants to show that this type of machination is to be prohibited and should impose a severe sanction, the specter of the withdrawal of the Renault F1 Team should push the members of the World Council to a certain leniency. The departure of two of the protagonists of the affair, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds, should also convince the FIA ​​that Renault has already done its internal laundry, hoping that the two men will be able to take responsibility for the Singapore accident on their backs. .