Mosley: A fair decision

FIA president Max Mosley has defended the decision not to give Renault a harsher punishment over the ‘crashgate’ affair.

On Monday, the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) slapped the French car manufacturer with a two-year suspended ban from formula one.

However, many believe the FIA came down too lightly on Renault over the scandal, which has been labeled as the worst example of cheating in the history of sport.

Mosley, though, thinks the FIA's decision was a fair one: 'I think it's the right decision.

'I think the blame has been placed where the blame should be placed.

'The penalty that we've imposed is the harshest one we can impose, which is disqualification, complete exclusion from the sport.

'However, because Renault have demonstrated that they had absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place - even the Renault F1 team didn't have, still less does the company have any responsibility at all - it would be wrong in the circumstances to impose an immediate penalty.'

Former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore was handed a life-long ban from motorsport at the hearing in Paris, while technical director Pat Symonds was banned for five years.

Both resigned from their posts with the team last week when they took full responsibility for organising the plot to fix the result of last year's Singapore grand prix.

The WMSC's decision has forced Briatore to close down his driver management business – the Italian is responsible for managing a number of drivers on the current F1 grid and the WMSC's ban includes any drivers that are represented by Briatore.

And Mosley admits it is 'sad' to see the experienced Italian exit the sport in such a way.

'He's been in motorsport for more than 20 years at the top level,' said Mosley.

'It's sad to see a career end like that, but what else could we do?'