urmm wow

[expat]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78668

Flavio, Symmonds both gone from Renault.
Renault wont dispute the allegations when they face the WMC.
To me this has to be worse than the Mclaren information swap.
This one crash altered not only the race but also the championship, as Massa was comfortably leading the race when this happend. No SC at that moment, Massa goes on to win, and the points from that give him the drivers championship. End of the day you cant take away the season results based on this, and its not worth losing sleep over, but it certainly needs to be considered in punishment.
Also Fernando apparently knows about this, according to the Piquets, and considering everything thats happend so far from their information, its hard to doubt that right now.
I feel Flavio, Pat, and Nelson are done for good in F1, Fernando may find himself not far behind if found true, he was part of the Mclaren spying saga, having knowledge of what was going on. Now this. It doesn't help his credibility.

[quote]

[Craig.]

Well Spying got those involved a ban.
Race fixing should certainly at least get that much, plus fines and maybe a lifetime ban. Piquet Jr will never sit in an F1 cockpit again. Personally I think the Piquets have gone the wrong way about this. I know he was bitter about losing his seat, but with his name, his fathers backing and the new teams next season, he'd have likely found a drive. He can kiss all that goodbye now and he's pee'd on the Piquet name as well.. I dont for one minute think they did this to clear their consciences.
Not sad to see Flavio gone, he did a lot for F1 but his time has long gone.
Symonds, its a shame he's one of the best engineers in the biz, but this puts a cloud over it all.

Fernando, I think next weeks hearing will bring that to light, but something tells me his season may be done anyway, as Renault are facing a ban if found guilty.

As a side note: "then there was one" Its now Max Mosely head to head with Luca Di'Montezemelo. He's gotten rid of two of the three thorns in his side. This could be a fun two months.

[eno]

There probably would have been a drive for Piquet at BMW as they have been bought by the Arab consorium behind the Nott's County buy out. So it looks like they may survive in some form or another.

[C]

As the back page of The Times said today,

The worst act of cheating in the history of sport

After a little consideration, I'm rather inclined to agree. A few rugby incidents have gone a little far, and caused fairly serious injury, but this could have been far worse.

[Hagar]

The worst act of cheating in the history of sport

For what it's worth I think it's a very long time since F1 could be considered a sport.

[C]

The worst act of cheating in the history of sport

For what it's worth I think it's a very long time since F1 could be considered a sport.

Which is linked into the big manufacturers taking over independent teams (Renault, BMW, Honda, and to an extent McLaren with Mercedes - at least Toyota had the decency to set up from new) in the past 15 years, and as was seen in Singapore, letting commercial pressures and the need for publicity dictate abysmal practices.

Hopefully the introduction of some new blood next year in the form of 3 or 4 new customer teams will bring the sport down to earth.