Bernie Ecclestone has spoke of the damage caused to Formula One by the ‘race-fixing’ scandal, which appears certain to cost his business partner Flavio Briatore his job if Renault are found guilty of cheating in last September’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Briatore, the Renault team principal, who co-owns QPR football club along with Ecclestone, will learn his fate following an investigation by the FIA, into whether he ordered his driver Nelson Piquet to crash his car to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race. He may, however, be pushed by the Renault board sooner.
Ecclestone, F1’s commercial supremo, said: ‘It is not good for the sport. It all seems very strange to me but I do not know the truth. Daily Mail
The FIA, Formula One’s governing body, would only confirm that it was looking into “alleged events at a previous world championship race”, but Renault did not deny speculation that it was the subject of that investigation.
Piquet crashed on lap 14 of the Singapore Grand Prix, two laps after Alonso had made an extremely early pit-stop, prompting a safety-car period. Alonso went on to win his first race of the season. Piquet was dropped by Renault last month for not fulfilling contractual commitments and has since been outspoken in his criticism of Briatore, describing the Italian as his “executioner”.
“The conditions I’ve had to deal with during the last two years have been very strange,” Piquet wrote on his website. “There are incidents that I can hardly believe occurred myself.” He claimed: “On numerous occasions, 15 minutes before qualifying and races, my team boss [Briatore] would threaten me, telling me if I didn’t get a good result, he had another driver ready to put in my place.”
It is understood that either Piquet or his father, three-time world champion Nelson Piquet Snr, or both have submitted witness statements to prompt the investigation. Telegraph.co.uk
Ecclestone said that Flavio Briatore, the Renault team principal, had told him that he knows nothing about the claims that have been made. Ecclestone also described the Italian as “well and truly upset”, and added that Nelson Piquet Jr, the driver whom Ecclestone clearly believes sparked the sport’s latest cheating scandal by informing the FIA of the explosive allegations, could be finished as a Formula One driver.
“This is not the sort of thing we need at the moment,” said Ecclestone, who has seen Honda sell up last year and BMW announce that it is leaving Formula One at the end of this season. “I think it will p*** off Renault for a start. Them leaving the sport is a danger, obviously. I mean, I hope that it isn’t like that, but it’s the sort of thing that might happen.”
“What I know, I can’t say, to be honest with you. All I know is that Flavio is insisting that he knows nothing about it. I think the FIA are looking into everything. They are trying to find out the reality. I suppose they would be upset if they found out that what people are assuming is true, is in fact true, I suppose.”
Ecclestone believes that it will be hard to prove a case of this sort unless there is strong independent evidence to back up the claims or technical data that bears out the alleged version of events. “The only way you could say there is a case to answer is if there is any real evidence,” he said.
“If it’s just young Piquet saying this because he wants to say it, that’s one thing. If, on the other hand, there’s some reality to it, then it’s all different. It will be difficult to prove. If there is something on the radio that said, ‘Err, Nelson, you’d better crash now,’ then what the hell can they [Renault] do? It depends exactly what comes out of the investigation.” Times Online
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