Holy shit. I’m sure everyone has been following “crashgate”.
Welp, Both Briatore and Symonds have left the team. Not sure if there’s a stronger admission of guilt than that.
Just logged into my twitter and saw Briatore trending… I’m like “how in the hell is that a trending top-…ooooooooh…” Definitely some shenanigans going on!
I also just heard from Dave (after I woke him up to tell him about this) that BMW apparently found a swiss buyer, but had already given up their gridspot for next year. So the teams are trying to work together to get them in… which would mean 28 cars on grid.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/low/motorsport/formula_one/8256739.stm)
ya it looks as if BMW will make he 28th, should be an exciting season next year with a US team as well
I doubt very seriously that Renault will be allowed to compete next year.
I will be very surprised if they are not allowed to, if they still want to.
yeah, seems like the sauber team should just take Renault’s spot, maybe expand the grip after next year
One would assume you meant grid, and I still:fail:
The grid is expanding from 20 to 26 cars this coming year, 28 if BMW is given a 14th spot on the grid and Toyota and Renault don’t drop out.
well, yeah, of course I meant grid
and yes, I also meant expanding from 26 to 28…
I don’t know a whole lot about the sport(my first season watching), but imo, purposely causing an accident is seriously dangerous, and deserves a serious penalty.
It is pretty serious, but Renault is not a team to be ousted lightly. I’m in the boat with Mike; I doubt they’ll get kicked out completely, but they should get some serious punishment.
Remember when McLaren got the $100 million penalty that even made news in the USA? Yeah, they only ended up paying out like 32 million of that.
They cant afford to not have the Renault World Series and Renault GP2 entries.
It’s official.
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/2009/Pages/wmsc_210909.aspx
“At an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council held in Paris on 21 September 2009, the ING Renault F1 team (“Renault F1”) admitted that the team had conspired with its driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, in breach of the International Sporting Code and F1 Sporting Regulations.”
“The World Motor Sport Council considers that offences of this severity merit permanent disqualification from the FIA Formula One World Championship. However, having regard to the points in mitigation mentioned above and in particular the steps taken by Renault F1 to identify and address the failings within its team and condemn the actions of the individuals involved, the WMSC has decided to suspend Renault F1’s disqualification until the end of the 2011 season. The World Motor Sport Council will only activate this disqualification if Renault F1 is found guilty of a comparable breach during that time.”
There are also some pretty serious restrictions put on Briatore and Symonds. I am still completely appalled at this behavior…
so basically a slap on the wrist?
They can’t fuck with 700+ people’s jobs at Renault F1, and the potential of them saying “Fuck off” to the WMSC which would then mean no Renault World Series, or participation in GP2, or engine supplies for other F1 teams. It would cost the FIA more than it would cost Renault. So they basically said “You may not have been directly involved, but it reflects upon you”. Symonds received a 5 year ban for Formula 1. Briatore recieved a lifetime ban relating to ANY FIA sanctioned event (he can’t even get into the paddock anymore as a guest) and no driver represented by his management company can get a superlicense renewed (See: Alonso).
The absolute worst part about this for me. That little shit Hamilton would never have won the WDC last year, as the Singapore incident promoted him above Massa. FUCK.
I see where you are coming from…but I think they should have gotten hit a LITTLE harder than that.
MERC snags Brawn F1 and turns into Mercedes GP, Brawn still principal.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/11/10220.html
Button and Hamilton likely to be teamed up on Mclaren.
And according to a BBC article… Nico Rosberg will be their lead driver, with Nick Heidfeld his likely partner. @ MERC (BRAWN) GP
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8362295.stm
I don’t even want to think about how different it would have been otherwise I would be this guy > 
Button signs with McLaren
Mercedes Buys out 75% of Brawn
McLaren set to buy back their 60~% from Mercedes over the next few years
Kimi decides to sit season out and earn a cool $25 million from Santander as well as $17 million from Ferrari. (must be nice!)
Glock signs with Manor.
Wow. Fuck. I hope Jenson whips LH, but I’m sure that won’t happen because McLaren is so invested in LH. They are very different for driving styles and you KNOW that the car will be designed around what LH likes.
crazy stuff. I don’t know what Kimi is thinking other than getting paid to do nothing