In this compelling and meticulously researched Op-Ed, Carlo, a well-informed Formula 1 aficionado and former contributor to our website delves into the intricate and often controversial aspects of the sport. Drawing from the recent Singapore Grand Prix and the remarkable season of Max Verstappen and Red Bull, the author offers a distinct perspective that challenges the popular narratives in Formula 1.
With an eye for detail and a penchant for questioning the mainstream, the writer revisits the contentious 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, famously marked by Nelson Piquet Jr.’s crash and the subsequent scandal.
So many chiefs – not enough Indians!
By Carlo
I watched a rerun of the Singapore Grand Prix coverage over the weekend and in a year of daunting brilliance from Max Verstappen and Red Bull it was a relief to see Ferrari win.
Despite the respective international writers claiming it was a brilliant victory by Carlos Sainz, I had a different perspective as I find him duplicitous at best.
Of course, during race build ups there’s always film showing a brief history of the race and this obviously included the 2008 race when Piquet spun out – ‘deliberately’.
Without question I probably need to refrain from licking plate glass, the removal of my tin foil Trilby may be of some help and maybe a change in my medication would clear up some of my frankly hallucinatory thoughts.
You see, I never really got this clean-cut coincidence that Nelson Piquet Jnr was asked to spin so that Renault won the race.
I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest it was a conspiracy involving the leading political protagonists at the time but surely I can’t be the only person who senses a major cover up… especially as Bernie Ecclestone claimed earlier last year that he and Max Mosley both knew what had happened. I guess I should offer a few of the facts.
Singapore: What happened in 2008
Piquet Jnr spun out on lap 14 ( only 47 to the finish then!!) which caused the safety car to be deployed whilst the track was being cleared. Alonso had stopped 2 laps earlier and refuelled. After the release of the safety car several drivers stopped.
Amongst the drivers was Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica who would be penalised for stopping whilst the pit-lane was not operational – because of rules at the time. The choice for both was retire on track due to their low fuel levels they had chosen to start with; or stop, continue the race and try to recover some ground after the serving of their respective penalties.
Bear in mind that Rosberg qualified 9th, Kubica qualified 4th yet both needed to stop within two laps of Alonso’s first stop? So, fellow theorists, after the stops, Rosberg led from Trulli, Fisichella, Kubica and Alonso. To my deluded way of thinking this surely meant that Fernando was fifth with work to do – yet popular fiction portrays the crime as though Alonso emerged in the lead by thirteen laps!!. In fact, he only took the lead on lap 34 out of 61.
Rosberg who finished the race in second stopped a second time on lap 41, Alonso on lap 42
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Piquet, the manipulator
I’d best furnish more reasons why I assume I believe this to be a complete injustice.
I start with the cases of Nelson Piquet, both Snr and Jnr. One is a renowned manipulator of the press who has used them to his own ends over the decades. His legacy as a triple World Champion gifted him a position that could define or destroy careers until recent interviews he’s given revealed him to be a racist.
Yet I’m expected to believe that this proud man accepted Briatore telling his son to crash deliberately for another driver when the team wasn’t chasing any title? Where was papa Piquet’s morals exactly?
A classy man who once claimed Ayrton Senna to be gay and called Nigel Mansell’s wife ‘ugly’ to psychologically attack the British bulldog… It speaks volumes that both Senna and Mansell – who were not averse to physical interaction when the circumstances required – practically ignored the slanderous comments of a desperate man.
Also, whilst I’m at it, what is often not mentioned is the additional fact that Nelson and Fernando were lining up next to each other in 15th and 16th on the grid.
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Wouldn’t one of the Brazilians have arrogantly suggested that Fernando, with his special skillset, spin out to let Nelson win his first race?
Of course many observers melodramatically claim that the two senior management figures at Renault were asking Jnr to risk fatal injury.
Now if they had asked this at Silverstone – “Nels’ dear boy – Copse corner – don’t bother to turn” – that would probably be slightly risky, I grant you. Only ‘slightly risky’ bearing in mind the construction of a modern F1 car…
But turn 17 on this street circuit. It’s a 3rd gear 120kmh corner or in Western speak – 74.6mph. So all the sensationalist headlines of death do not add up!
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The FIA’s role at the time
Moving on, the FIA, led by Max Mosley, would like people to believe that Flavio and Pat are incomprehensibly stupid. Imagine asking a young ambitious driver, with a retired champion father backing his career, to crash for the greater good. It’s almost unwritten that this opens up the possibility of extortion in the future.
How would dumb and dumber be able to run the team knowing that one seat is permanently taken and the driver can never be taken to task? Of course, the Piquets would have been grinning like the Cheshire Cat at their outrageous fortune.
In what is undoubtedly a sorry saga, whatever the truth of the situation, Piquet was dismissed during the 2009 summer. Sitting here, tapping at a keyboard, I began to wonder if both Symonds and Briatore were suffering collective dementia that year when they dismissed their collaborator.
Surely they would have feared for their respective careers when the evidence was presented.
I mean, I have to imagine that the Brazilian lad had had the instructions in writing because why else would the governing body take just his word after being sacked?
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Briatore: The harshest sanction
Briatore was handed a lifetime ban which was described as “the harshest sanction ever imposed on an individual in the history of motorsport.”
His co-conspirator, Pat Symonds, was given a 5 year ban but the French Tribunal de Grande Instance overturned these ‘miscarriages of justice’. Afterwards Briatore had claimed that “the FIA had been used as a tool of vengeance on behalf of one man”. Briatore was, of course, referring to the out-going FIA President Max Mosley who chose not to run for re-election as FIA president in October 2009.
Many of the FIA’s members were unhappy with the previous year’s newspaper scandal. At the time Mosley had offered that he knew who the instigator was and if he ever collected enough evidence would take the matter further.
Of course, it goes without saying that there is absolutely no suggestion that the two factors are related in any manner.
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Eddie Irvine remarked that the teams had a history of cheating and doing anything to win including sabotaging opponents “but this is just the FIA going on a crusade”.
Whereas former driver Martin Brundle was scathing in his opinion:
“He didn’t deliver at Renault, he wasn’t fast enough. That’s why he was released and that’s why he has dropped hand grenades into the system ever since.” said Brundle.
He was also critical of the governing body allowing Piquet Jnr to escape sanction despite admitting to race fixing. Anyway, I’d better go now, nurse has brought cocoa and marshmallows.
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Very interesting piece. Thought-provoking.