If you are a Formula 1 racerWhat will you do to help your team? Are you willing to accept the group’s orders? What if those team orders instruct you to purposely crash to give your teammates a lasting advantage? Because Nelson Piquet Jr. in 2008 Singapore Grand Prixcrashing into the team’s name is an unacceptable choice.
The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix has been considered a historic event no matter what. It was the first race at the newly built Marina Bay Street Circuit, and the first F1 race to be held at night, largely to provide international television windows. As it is today, Singapore is placed near the bottom of the F1 calendar (in 2008 was the 15th race on the 18-race schedule), making it a hugely important event, as it could easily determine the rest. of the Championship.
For the Renault team, however, things are looking bleak. Drivers Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr were unable to score a win, and if the situation doesn’t change soon, there are rumors that Renault will take a pause.
Unless, of course, something spectacular happened.
After qualifying, things still look bad. Alonso and Piquet Jr finished in 15th and 16th respectively, and with Piquet twirling around in the warm-up, it looks like Singapore will be another pathetic tagline. The tight track also means Felipe Massa maintains the lead from pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen – all in qualifying order. Without a major shakeup, it will likely continue to be.
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Fernando Alonso made the first big strategic move of the race, pitting on lap 12 of the 61-lap event. No other drivers followed him, so he rejoined at the rear of the field with a light fuel load, ready to overtake the competition.
And then his teammate spun.
Piquet Jr. hit the turn 17 wall, his car coming to a stop on the track. This corner was, coincidentally, one of the few on the track that didn’t have a crane nearby, so the safety car was deployed while the clean-up crews arrived.
This turned out to be a massive boon for Alonso; as per 2008’s sporting regulations, the pit lane was to remain closed during a safety car period until all running cars had lined up behind the safety car. This meant that anyone who pitted during the safety car period would be forced to rejoin at the back of the field, as opposed to the more traditional regulations that would allow cars to stop during a safety car period and lose very little track time.
When the race restarted, Alonso didn’t lead right away, but he did gain significant track position because many of the leaders pitted and returned to the track blended in among much slower cars. However, the cars in front of Alonso were those that had stayed out — meaning that, eventually, they’d need to come into the pits for fuel. When that happened, Alonso secured the lead of the race and held it to the checkered flag thanks to the narrow track surface of the street circuit.
After the race, all seemed well. Piquet Jr. called his crash a “ simple error“Because the team asked him to push harder, and it was Renault who expressed controllable amazement that Alonso was able to make one”Excellent tactical drive.Therefore, the managers see no reason to take any action against Piquet Jr. or Renault. Some skeptics note that it was extremely favorable to the crash of Piquet Jr. when and where it happened, but no one has any proof – especially because some of the biggest skeptics came from Brazilian broadcaster Rede Globo, who were upset that Singapore’s poor finish Felipe Massa could be the main reason behind his loss of 2008 championship by a single point.
It wasn’t until a year later, in late August 2009, Rede Globo officially accused Renault of directing Piquet Jr to crash, forcing the FIA to investigate. On 4 September 2009, the FIA announced that it had concluded that Renault was guilty of a “violation of Article 151c of the International Sports Code, that the team conspired with its driver, Nelson Piquet Jr, to caused an intentional collision at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix with the aim of making the vehicle’s deployment safe in favor of its other driver, Fernando Alonso. “All stakeholders have been invited to the FIA World Motor Sports Council meeting on September 21.
Evidence supporting the FIA’s accusation largely came in the form of a leaked transcript in which Piquet Jr. confirmed that he was asked by Renault to lead Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds to crash into a particular corner. Piquet Jr is alleged to have been in a “fragile and emotional state of mind” because he did not know if he would be signed by Renault for a second season; Briatore allegedly forced Piquet Jr to sign an option that prevented him from negotiating with other teams, then regularly brought Piquet into his office to analyze every detail of his performance.
“When I was asked to crash and cause a safety car crash to help the team, I accepted because I hoped it would improve my position on the team at a crucial time,” Piquet said. this during the racing season,” said Piquet. “I was never told by anyone that by agreeing to cause a problem, I would be guaranteed a contract extension or any other benefit. However, in context, I think it would be helpful in achieving this goal. I therefore agreed to cause the incident.”
For his part, Alonso claimed that he had no knowledge of the possible crash and that he was exonerated from all responsibility. The FIA also cleared any errors by Piquet Jr.
But everything is far from over. After Piquet’s scoreboard was leaked, Renault decided to to sue both Nelson Piquet Jr and his father for “making false allegations and a related attempt to blackmail the team that allowed Mr. Piquet Jr to drive for the remainder of the 2009 season.” Piquet Jr was dropped by the team after running the Hungarian Grand Prix on 26 July 2009, to be replaced by Romain Grosjean.
However, Renault seems to understand that it is on shaking ground. After attempting to accuse Piquet Jr of conceiving the accident idea, both Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore resigned, presumably in an attempt to prevent the team from facing further punishment.
It’s not enough. During the September 21 meeting, Renault was disqualified and suspended for two years; If Renault repeats an incident similar to the one at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, it will be banned from the sport altogether. Briatore was issued a lifetime ban from any FIA-sanctioned events and also banned from managing drivers – the FIA refused to issue super licenses to any drivers working with Briatore in the future. For her part, Symonds was banned from participating in FIA events for five years. The penalties were imposed as Symonds admitted he was involved in staging Piquet Jr.’s crash, while Briatore has vehemently denied the allegations. Briatore’s lifetime ban remains one of the harshest ever issued by the FIA.
The scandal that rocked F1, there were two other scandals in a short time: one was industrial espionage between the teams, the other was that Hamilton lied to manage the race at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix. Furthermore, Renault’s launch of four electric models was disrupted. interrupted by constant questions about Crashgate. After that, many teams and drivers spoke out against Renault, Briatore and Symonds appealed their ban, and Piquet Jr won the Renault smear lawsuit.
The scandal finally killed Piquet Jr.’s F1 hopes. while he was never a particularly impressive driver at Renault, no team wanted to touch him after Crashgate, forcing him to move to NASCAR and then Formula E. Symonds returned to F1 as a was a consultant for Virgin Racing in 2011 and is now the F1 Technical Director Office Staff. And this year, Briatore returns to F1 as an ambassador for the sport. Alonso, for his part, seems unaffected by the incident.
Perhaps even stranger is the fact that very little – if anything – has happened in F1 sport to prevent this from happening again. The series seems sweep Crashgate under the rug, eventually allowing its key players to return to the sport without censorship. In fact, Piquet Jr received the worst punishment, despite being exonerated; because he only made accusations about the Singapore Grand Prix after he was cut from the Renault team halfway in 2009, he earned the reputation of being something of a fair-weather driver. And as we approach this year’s Singapore Grand Prix, it’s important to remember that there’s more behind the scenes of F1 than we probably know.
