Search the Community

Ed Gorman I was doing some research, at a fast pace, it has to be said, into last year's race in Singapore and I came across the official Renault press release from that Grand Prix. I am surprised I had not stumbled across it before because it is a pretty smelly document all round. It reminds us that Briatore, Symonds and Piquet not only deceived motor racing fans the world over that night but also the vast majority of their own team who genuinely thought they had won a race against all odds. P1020273 The press release is worth quoting from because it sums up what a shabby and disgraceful episode this was. The fiction that it contains, by the way, is presented alongside the corporate brand images of 26 commercial sponsors of Renault's Formula One team, among them ING, Mutua Madrilena, Elf and Universa. I am sure they are delighted about that... The document starts as follows: Singapore Grand Prix, Sunday "The ING Renault F1 took its first victory of the season today as Fernando Alonso produced a brilliant tactical drive to win the Singapore Grand Prix, the sport's first ever night race." And here are the quotes from the key players that night, three of whom knew about a conspiracy to cheat, one of whom has said he did not. It starts with the latter - the race winner. Fernando Alonso P1 "This is a fantastic result - my first podium of the season; my first victory and I'm very happy, although I think it will take several days for me to realise what we have achieved. Winning a Grand Prix here just seemed to be impossible because we missed our chance yesterday in qualifying, but we were very fortunate today and it's a superb result for the team. We chose an aggressive strategy and we had a bit of luck, but we had the pace and the car was fantastic throughout the weekend." Nelson Piquet DNF "From the start of the race things were complicated and I had a lot of graining and the situation got worse and worse. The team asked me to push, which I tried to do and finally I lost the rear of my car. I hit the wall heavily but I'm ok. I am disappointed with my race but obviously very happy for the team this evening." Flavio Briatore, Managing Director ING Renault F1 Team "This is an amazing victory for Renault and for Fernando. Since Friday we knew that the car was very competitive and we were very disappointed at the end of qualifying. Today the car was extremely quick, stronger than Ferrari and McLaren, and although we had some luck when the safety car came out, we deserved this victory. It's a very important result for Renault after two difficult seasons and that helps us to prepare for 2009 in the best way possible." Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering "I think the luck we had in the early part of the race was nearly a cancellation of the bad luck we had yesterday. The car has proven itself and so has Fernando. The whole result is a tribute to the team and this wonderful circuit is a tribute to Singapore." I have resisted the temptation to annotate or add exclamation marks. A "brilliant tactical drive", things were "complicated" a "deserved" victory, a "tribute" to the team? I imagine there must have been one or two people on the plane home from that race who felt absolutely sick to their stomach. On that night I was far too naive to suspect that Renault could have fixed the whole thing. I remember hearing people discussing it and dismissed it immediately. I just could not accept, for a moment, that a team would risk its driver or risk its reputation in that way or sink that low. But I was wrong. Some of my colleagues were not so sceptical and among the most prescient was the veteran Joe Saward who dealt with potentially explosive and legally sensitive material cleverly in his race report. Have a look here, it makes interesting reading.