Crashgate - Complete Story (BBC)

renault have admitted that they fixed last year's singapore grand prix but did they get away with it renault team principal flavio briatore and engineering boss pat simmons paid for it with their jobs but the team is still in formula one and fernando alonso has kept the victory no fine for renault the penalty for now is disqualification but suspended for two years so what that comes down to is provided they don't do something similar within two years they don't have any problem i was genuinely relieved as indeed every single member of the team was because we all quite honestly thought this could be the end of our jobs we've got to go home and start finding another way to pay a mortgage we now know what happened nelson pk crashed on purpose so as to bring out the safety car this wasn't spying on other teams or lying to the stewards this was endangering spectators marshals and his own safety the only debate is whether the plan to crash deliberately was pk's idea or pat simmons each one blames the other so someone is still not telling the truth nelson pk's actions allow teammate fernando alonso to reach the front and win the race myself and a lot of other people in the paddock last year immediately after the race suspected that there was something strange going on you still count that race as a proper race victory for yourself yes even though the team effect effectively manufactured it well i think that's a interpretation there are many interpretations how you can win the race uh you know that was in very early stage of the race and uh it was a long race to to do and you know the car was performing well i did no mistakes and i still can't the team may have got off lightly in the fia court but renault had been hit in the pocket by the immediate withdrawal of title sponsor ing the financial services company didn't want to be associated with a team that cheats in an ironic twist pk's replacement roman grosjon spun in precisely the same place in the same way here in practice yesterday at least new renault boss bob bell could see the funny side your team's been embroiled in a race fixing scandal uh your major title sponsor has walked out on you in the middle of the season how's your first week as team boss going it can't it can't get worse can it i can only look good in a situation like this whatever i do so we'll deal with it i've dealt with a lot of ups and downs in the past we are fundamentally strong committed uh parent renault are right behind us and we're going to get through this and we're going to demonstrate again to everybody that we can pull back and be at the top as we used to be by being granted immunity by the fia in return for his evidence nelson pk is free to race again in formula one if he can find a team that wants to employ him pat simmons admitted that he'd fixed the race with pk and has been banned from fia motorsport for five years but after an anonymous whistleblower within the renault team confirmed that flavio briatori knew about the plan the fia banned the italian for life flavios vowed to clear his name but his downfall has been dramatic the flamboyant charismatic showman whose world has collapsed it's sad to see a career end like that but what else could we do everyone watching is concerned they want to know if this is endemic in formula one is is everyone cheating no not at all no it's just you know there's always everywhere you'll always find it has been in the past will be in the future individuals that that do rubbish you know and you can't change that i'm sure the real racing fans they love to see racing they love to see battles they love to see that's all from my experience from growing up that's what i wanted to see i didn't want to see all the other stuff i wanted to see people racing wheel-to-wheel touching if they had to to wheel stuff look at this at the end the best drivers getting at the front and the best teams winning and i'm sure the real racing fans out there really want to see that what does it mean for the future of formula one i don't think it means anything i think we now go on we have problems from time to time as long as we solve them and deal with them properly that's fine the fia believe they've drawn a line under the whole affair whoever else has bent the rules in formula one renaults will live on as one of the worst cases of cheating in sporting history it remains to be seen if formula one has learned its lesson or are the demands for success too great someone will always be inclined to take the easy route to victory

Channel: Mooorteeen

Views: 811,374

Keywords: Renault, bbc, piquet, crashgate, briatore, symonds, singapore, f1, 2008, alonso

Id: m58P4d5bT6o

Length: 4min 39sec (279 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2009