Renault win European GP appeal

teabagyokel

#dejavu
Valued Member
Renault have won their appeal against a one race ban for attempting to kill spectators having a wheel loose at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Commercialism yet again prevails over any form of sanity in Formula One.

This is a sad, sad day. Teams can now be assured that endangering the lives of others is now unpunishable, especially if F1 can make money for it. And the FIA have yet again undermined their stewards by not backing their decisions (rather than planting Alan Donelly to 'suggest' the stewards actions when Lewis Hamilton had done some crime like overtaking).

It is an absolute disgrace, safety should be no.1 and I would like to arrange a meeting with the judge in this affair and John Surtees.
 
Here's the FIA press release.

Reminder of the facts

On 26 July 2009, the Stewards of the Meeting suspended the competitor ING Renault F1 Team (“Renault”) from the next event in the 2009 Formula One World Championship (namely, the Grand Prix of Europe to be held in Valencia) for the following reasons:

- Renault knowingly released car N°7 (driver Fernando Alonso) from the pit stop position without one of the retaining devices for the wheel-nuts being securely in position;
- Being aware of this, Renault failed to take any action to prevent the car from leaving the pit-lane;
- Renault failed to inform the driver of this problem or to advise him to take appropriate action given the circumstances;
- This resulted in a car part detaching at turn 5 and the wheel itself detaching at turn 9.
The FFSA appealed the Stewards’ decision on behalf of Renault.


Decision

Renault admitted to the Court that it breached the Sporting Regulations, in that it failed to ensure that car no. 7 complied with the conditions for safety throughout practice and the race, and that it released the car after a pit stop when it was unsafe to do so. However, it requested the Court to reconsider the severity of the sanction imposed by the Stewards.

Having heard the arguments of the parties, the Court has decided as follows:

1. to allow the appeal and overturn the sanction imposed by the Stewards in the Contested Decision;
2. to issue a reprimand and impose a fine of $50,000 upon Renault.

The reasons for this decision will be published in a full judgment in the coming days.

Why are the arguments not being published?
I'd like to see what Renault argued considering they have admitted the charges.

It will be interesting to see what the reasons for overturning the original penalty are.

Another example of bad management by the FIA?
So now stewards are unable to hand out penalties correctly without them being overturned by the FIA ICA?

Link: http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/ica/2009/Pages/ica_170809a.aspx
 
Brogan said:
Why are the arguments not being published?

Because no-one has come up with an excuse yet as to why Renault should be allowed to send cars out without the wheels attached. The only motivation is that they can't flog tickets without Alonso, and they will publish their arguments when they've worked one out.

I'm sure a huge multinational company will miss $50,000. If this is a precedent it would be unwise to attend a Formula One race in future, and I would hope all the marshalls pull out.

Why does it require hindsight for anything to be made safe? Prevention is the best cure, as the families of Senna, Ratzenburger, Surtees, de Angelis, Villeneuve, Paletti... will tell you!
 
Well hold the front page..."Renault can race in Fernando's home GP" shocker.....

I agree with TBY, it's a bad and sad day again for F1's rule makers. I actually thought that this penalty would stand but there you go. Ticket sales over safety.
 
Great for the race - disgraceful for racing. Any points that Renault earn will now be discredited, which again will lead to publicity for F1 and the FIA, but at a cost to the fans.

How can any governing body have so little respect for the authority and process of the control structure that they have put in place.

F1 is currently being run by very, very little people - come the revolution... >:( >:( :givemestrength: >:( >:( :givemestrength:

OK - That feels better, I shall now remove my Bernie Mosely mock up from the dart board and search out the valium
 
F1 is currently being run by very, very little people

F1 is being run by greedy self inerested people who care more about profits than safety. I was looking foward to Valencia without Alonso being a complete flop and the people who run it deciding to pull the race next year so that we could go to a more interesting track. Ah well!

What I don't understand is that in one set of circumstances the FIA refuses point blank to over rule the decisions of the race stewards and then in others completely undermines them. It's been said before but I will say it again: where is the consitency?
 
FB, I think the reason for the confusion is that externally they're calles the "rules & regulations", internally they are "marketing strategies and cost centres"
 
'ok guys, you had a choice... schumacher or alonso'
'ermmm.... schumacher tried but failed...'
'so now you want alonso? wellll... ok then '


secret recording of the meeting

madness, sheer madness. and if i was surtees i would now send back all my medals and trophies.
 
Interesting that Gracia implies it's the collateral damage to Renault and Alonso...

If that is indeed the damage that was taken into consideration (which everyone doubts) I wonder if, in order not to set a dangerous precedent, Renault was required to make certain commitments - I think not!

It's no wonder Bernie says that so much of the commercial revenues are taken up by legal costs - it seems the administration is determined to assist that direction.

If, as must be the case, the decision was made because of the potential threat of action from spanish media, concern that the spanish could boycott future GPs (as per USA), despite Bernie's commitment to hold them, and that Valencia has little enough going for it even with Alonso present, it would have been nice for the FIA to be the first to hold up its hands and say this was a judgement call for the benefit of the fans and the sport. Then we might just have believed them.
 
Brogan said:
As anticipated, the true story starts to emerge...

Carlos Gracia, president of Spain's motor sport federation, has revealed that the FIA's Court of Appeal overturned Renault's ban from the European Grand Prix after considering the 'collateral damage' of the original ruling.
What "collateral damage" could they possibly be referring to?

Link: http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5497973,00.html

Well, in a sense collateral damage is the issue, ie. the collateral damage that can occur when unsupervised wheels make their merry way across Grand Prix tracks. The reason they're tethered on is not so some chancer can not attach them properly.

As to the damage to the sport, the total damage to the sport leaving Renault out can be summed up in one word: zero. The damage to the wallets of a certain hobgoblin and his evil CVC masters may have been quite damaged, but Renault should be out to serve as a warning to all who endanger others.

If Lewis Hamilton, Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli etc. had a wheel come off, their teams would be outside Valencia this weekend. That the commercial power of Alonso has saved Renault is a damning indictment, and a clear indication that the FIA have the same idiotic idea of fair play as do Ferrari.
 
Well, with Jean Todt looking likely to be the next president, I can only see fairness as being less and less relevant..
 
It's such a relief that it was an unknown error - I occasionally go through these moments of self belief, like when watching the GP the other weekend I saw Alonso's mechanic on the front right wheel trying to grab at the wheel after removing the pneumatic dubray, and then his body language as he saw the lollypop rising.

It's such a relief that these moments are all in my mind, if they weren't it would mean that the official bodies were lying for the sake of money and PR and that would never do.

I will now book myself into the funny farm knowing that all is right with the world, it's just me that's mad :surrender :twisted:
 
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