Features

Formula One back in the dock

Author: Lynda Collins
Date: 21/09/2009
Formula One betting

Renault's race-fixing scandal might just be the straw the breaks the camel's back as Formula One is again poised to be dragged through the mud away from the track.

Monday's FIA World Motor Sport Council hearing into allegations that the French team conspired to fix the result of last season's Singapore Grand Prix is as unwelcome as it is untimely.

The allegation is that former driver Nelson Piquet Jr was instructed to crash his car in order to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race last September.

Team boss Flavio Briatore and director of engineering Pat Symonds have both left the team ahead of the hearing, but whatever happens in Paris on Monday cannot be good for a sport which has been dogged by controversy in recent seasons.

Who will win next weekend's Singapore Grand Prix

First we had the spying scandal which rumbled on for 12 months after first rearing its ugly head in February 2007.

"Spygate" alleged that the McLaren team was passed confidential technical information from the Ferrari team by high-ranking officials.

It led to McLaren being kicked out of the 2007 constructors' championship and fined a record 100million US dollars.

Then there was the stand-off between the Formula One Teams' Association and the FIA during the opening months of this season which threatened the very existence of the sport.

Angered by a change in rules imposed by FIA president Max Mosley which threatened to introduce a budget cap on teams, they threatened to break away and form a rival championship.

Eight leading teams vowed to walk away and start afresh from 2010 before a resolution was finally thrashed out to maintain the current status quo.

Last came the unsavoury incident surrounding Lewis Hamilton at this year's Australian Grand Prix.

The reigning world champion was forced to admit he had lied in an effort to cheat Jarno Trulli out of a third-placed finish by claiming he had passed him under yellow flag conditions.

Hamilton claimed he has been "mislead" and "instructed" by a member of the McLaren team to lie to the race stewards as Trulli was dropped from third to 12th place in the final result.

A contrite Hamilton later said sorry but his reputation - which had been squeaky clean since becoming the youngest ever world champion six months earlier - had been tarnished.

Formula One then is certainly on shaky ground when it comes to public opinion, so it is fair to suggest that the last thing the sport needs is a scandal to blow all the others out of the water.

If Renault are found guilty of race-fixing it was rock the sport right to its very core.

The viewing public could well feel that is enough is enough and if it cannot trust the sporting outcome of a race then what is the point of watching?

That would be disastrous for Formula One - particularly in the current economic climate where every advertising penny counts.

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