Renault were served with a two year suspended ban for the scandal at an extraordinary hearing of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in Paris on Monday.
Former team boss Flavio Briatore was banned from motorsport indefinitely and Renault F1’s former director of engineering Pat Symonds was given a five-year ban for his part in the controversy, in which the pair instructed Nelson Piquet to crash out of last year’s Singapore grand prix in order to assist Fernando Alonso.
Up until now, it was believed that only Piquet, Symonds and Briatore played a part in the race-fixing conspiracy, but a statement released by the FIA has brought a fourth individual into the mix.
It is alleged that Witness X was informed of the plot before last year’s inaugural night race but was heavily opposed to it and, in its statement, the governing body states that the unidentified individual told its investigators that he was 'personally present at a meeting shortly after qualifying on Saturday 27 September 2008 when Mr Symonds had mentioned the possibility of a crash plan to Mr Briatore'.
'The FIA's advisers were confident Witness X himself played no active role in the conspiracy and that, indeed, he had objected to it and sought to distance himself from it,' the FIA's statement continued.
According to the report, Witness X only became known to the FIA a few days before Monday’s hearing, when Renault submitted the documents that sealed Briatore’s fate.
'As a result of the evidence, including Mr Piquet's admission, Mr Symonds' responses and Witness X's evidence, Renault F1 concluded that they and Mr Briatore must have known about the conspiracy,' Renault’s statement said.
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