Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Renault "fully accept" WMSC ruling

Renault want to move on from the race-fixing controversy
The Renault formula one team have said they 'fully accept' the FIA World Motor Sport Council's decision to hand them a two-year suspended ban for race-fixing in last year's Singapore grand prix.

The Enstone-based squad escaped a more severe punishment after the sport's governing body took into account mitigating factors including the dismissals of chief engineer Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore.

Several commentators have voiced their opinion that Renault have 'got off lightly' after their offence was deemed to be of 'unparalleled severity' and to have 'endangered the lives of spectators, marshals, other competitors and of Piquet himself'.

And in a statement, the team said: 'We are very sad to find ourselves in front of the Word Motor Sport Council today.

'By way of background, as a result of our own enquiries, we informed the FIA last week that we would not defend the charges and we accepted our responsibilities in relation to the incident in Singapore and we immediately took appropriate action inside the team.

'Today, we fully accept the decision of the council. We apologise unreservedly to the F1 community in relation to this unacceptable behaviour.

'We sincerely hope that we can soon put this matter behind us and focus constructively on the future.'

Reports that members of the Renault team had asked Nelson Piquet Jr to deliberately crash out of last year's Singapore grand prix to help Fernando Alonso win the race surfaced earlier this year.

Damning evidence collected by the governing body during their investigation was leaked to the media and this was swiftly followed by the resignations of Symonds and Briatore.

The two men have since been banned from partaking in any FIA-run race series in any capacity for periods of five years and indefinitely.

Renault say they will issue further information 'in the next few days'.ADNFCR-708-ID-19371486-ADNFCR

No comments:

Post a Comment