The FIA has ruled that the ING Renault F1 team is suspended for the next Grand Prix, because a wheel fell off Fernando Alonso’s car during the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile, the French national sporting authority, has appealed the decision on behalf of the team. It remains to be seen when the Court of Appeal will be convened, but with the European holidays now kicking in, it is unlikely that this will happen before the end of August. Thus one can expect to see Renault racing in Valencia, but it could then be left out of one of the following Grands Prix, probably the Italian race.
The FIA is obviously seriously worried about parts falling off cars, following the death of Henry Surtees in the Formula 2 race at Brands Hatch and the serious head injury suffered by Felipe Massa in Hungary at the weekend. Thus the decision is easily justifiable in terms of safety. It is, however, inevitable – whether the FIA likes it or not – that the move will be seen by some in F1 circles as some kind of a payback for Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, who has been one of the leading members of FOTA in recent months.
It will not help that the FIA Stewards in Budapest include some of Max Mosley’s strongest supporters, who are advised by Mosley’s right hand man Alan Donnelly. One of them is none other than Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the UAE representative, who confessed last year to have personally provided Mosley with 41 votes for last year’s confidence vote resulting from Mosley’s spanking scandal. Ben Sulayem later became an FIA Vice President. It is somewhat ironic that Ben Sulayem was given the opportunity to show off his driving skills in a Renault F1 car in Dubai a few months ago.
He crashed into the wall after losing control of the car as he accelerated away from the startline. A rather embarrassing experience.
Safety is, of course, of paramount importance and it is always difficult for those who seek to argue against the logic of it. However, such actions will lead the conspiracy theorists to see all manner of skeletons in the F1 cupboard. Although it has yet to be reported properly, there are rumours at the moment that Renault is on the verge of selling its F1 team to someone that Briatore has found to take it over. This will no doubt disrupt any negotiations along those lines. At the same time, with Massa unlikely to be back in action for Ferrari for some time, the team will be needing a new driver. It is expected that Alonso will join the Italian team next year whatever happens and it would be very convenient for that now to happen earlier than planned.
Such cynicism is rife in F1 circles and it will be interesting to see if this is what comes to pass.
The logic behind this punishment is that the team “knowingly released” Alonso from the pits without one of the retaining devices for the wheel-nuts being securely in position; it failed to take any action to prevent the car leaving the pits, failed to inform the driver of the problem or advise him to take the appropriate actions. The FIA says that this resulted in a heavy car part detaching itself from the car.
joeblogsf1 
In the light of recent incidents I think this punishment is fair. Seeing how the loose wheel just luckily came off when no other car was passing Alonso and how it hopped off the track for seemingly endless seconds it was truly a dangerous and potentially life threatening situation – even for the team’s own driver. Apart from that Flavio Briatore could be seen walking the paddock with a bag in his hand 15 laps before the end of the race, obviously leaving already and not willing to watch Nelson Piquet Jr’s final laps in an F1 car. That’s a team boss any driver can only wish for.
Joe, do you think this decision would have been taken if Henry Surtees had not had his accident at Brands?
This is a bullet for Briatore, nothing more and nothing less. The team “knowlingly releasing” the car without a proper fixed wheel is so absurd that it just resets any other part of the decision.
The part of the judgement ” it failed to take any action to prevent the car leaving the pits, failed to inform the driver of the problem or advise him to take the appropriate actions” sounds reasonable. The “knowingly releasing” part would be hard to prove; the implication was that it was almost planned. As for the penalty itself, a little harsh, but anything less would look like a slap on the wrist.
However, as a punishment for Flav, you can see where they are going on this one.
Seems completely reasonable to me. From the moment Alonso’s wheel started wobbling, and we knew that the team were aware of what had happened, I assumed FA would either get black-flagged or we’d see an “under investigation by the stewards” pop up on the screen within seconds. It’s so clear that FA could have safely pulled off and avoided losing the wheel, it wasn’t part of an accident. And yes, events have a context – how anyone could imagine this would be ignored following the Surtees and Massa accidents, I can’t imagine.
As for the conspiracy theories, surely a much odder thing today was Raikonnen being investigated after the race for a very similar move to the one that got Webber a drive through last time. Have the stewards or FIA explained the difference?
Well, I’m really interested in conspiracy theories but I can’t even imagine that the Renault punishment has anything to do with the political mess. In my opinion this is a strict response in a climate when any sign or danger has to be taken even more seriously than usual.
The Raikonnen incident has two distinguishing features from the Webber one last race:
1) Raikonnen didn’t actually cause an accident.
2) His car was red.
Speaking of the ongoing problems with F1 race stewards having RCM, or as it is known to us laymen as Red Car Myopia.
I fail to understand how Renault can be punished for apparantly “knowingly” not attaching a fourth wheel to Alonso’s car (after we all know how much faster an F1 car would go if it wasn’t burdened by those pesky fourth wheels) when last year (??) Kimi was allowed to circulate for lap after lap with his camera dangling off his car. He wasn’t even black flagged during the race to get him to remove it let alone Ferrari recieving a race ban for not pulling him into the pits and removing it.
The problems with the FIA will not end with Max leaving and certainly not if Todt is elected. It is an organisation that is incompetent at best and utterly corrupt at worst. The FIA should be left to organise roadside service initiatives with the touring clubs and leave the running of a professional multi-billion dollar business to those more capable.
Which would be almost anyone.
It really is time F1 had properly trained and regulated stewards. The idea that FIA politicians are qualified to make these decisions is ridiculous. Football does not let FIFA politicians referee world cup matches they let the referees do that. There are people who act as stewards every weekend of the year. The best of these should officate in F1.
I have no problem with the Renault suspension. The retaining clip that was not properly fitted was introduced specifically to prevent wheels coming off. For a team to release a car without making absolutely sure it was fitted is negligent and should be properly punished.
When the announcement that the Raikkonen incident would be made after the race I was stunned. How this can happen again when at the last race the decision was made during the race is beyond me. Effectively the reason Webber won in Germany was that the stewards took so long to make a decision. That was bad enough but this was ridiculous.
I have no problem that there was no punishment because I think it was just a normal racing situation. How that could not have been done in 10 minutes I don’t know. The FIA want to introduce their stewards to the people who run the Red Bull air races. They announce and investigation within about 10 seconds and announce the penalty 10 seconds later. But they are professionals who know what they are doing and don’t try to figure what decision gives the most political advantage.
I also don’t understand why there was n investigation of what was very clearly an unsafe release of Mark Webber from his pit box. There can be absolutely no question that this was anything other than an unsafe release yet there was no investigation let alone punishment.
THe FIA are clearly making decisions based on something other than the evidence available to the rest of us.
I’m sure everyone here has tightened a lug nut. But have you done it under duress? Any chance one was forgotten? Perhaps under-torqued?
If the FIA has proof that Renault did not notify Alonso after they were 100% certain the nut was not on, then we can all agree that the FIA should act. I, personally, think this warrants a 5-car or 10-car demotion (after all, we need cars on the track displaying their sponsors’ logos). However, Renault may have been unsure regarding the nut (see same car, same nut, 2006 Hungarian GP).
On a lighter note, this sure puts to bed the rumors that Renault was not favoring Piquet.
Would the one race ban be more deserved if Alonso’s wheel had killed someone?
I am sure if Renault had taken a look at the driving standards in the UAE, they would not have let Mohammed Ben Sulayem get in the car, the outcome was inevitable!!
manatcna, If Alonso’s wheel had killed someone I would expect renault to be banned for the rest of the season and receive a massive monetary fine. Once again F1 looks stupid because of inconsistent penalties and decisions. Red Bull should have been penalised for releasing Webber right in to the path of the Ferrari. Imagine how many people could have been injured had those two cars collided. It was only lady luck that they didn’t. I seem to remember Massa getting away with it also last season but others getting a penalty for it. Forget the FOTA v FIA situation as this sport manages to make itself look stupid enough when it actually comes time to race by decisions that really depend on what way the wind blows. Also the deffering of Kimi’s penalty until after the race was another PR disaster to the average fan. I know, let’s have him finish the race, do the podium celebrations and then totally p*ss off the driver who finished 4th by taking a decision once everyone has left the track. When will they actually realize this is a rubbish way to do it? However the FIA got it exactly right with banning Renault from the next race. I can’t believe they are actually appealing and on what grounds exactly? There is no excuse for that whether we had the Surtees tragedy last weekend or not. Even if the team attepmted to radio Alonso to say pull over then where were the marshalls waving flags at him? Another shambles to add to the growing list. I think this is why Briatore left the track early yesterday and not because he didn’t think it was worth watching Piquet. However true that may be 🙂 P.S. Pls keep sending positive thoughts to Felipe
In my oppinion release of Webber in the pits was more dangerous than Alonso with his wheel off. If Webber had crashed into Kimi, then most probably Webber would have hit Williams mechanics next, as they were there waiting one of their cars to pit. And now to ban 1 of these teams and not do anything for th eother is crasy.
Sure serious things have happened past weeks, but I think people are little over-reacting. Over the past few years I’ve seen so stupid punishments that soon no one will not even try to overtake fearing he will be punished.
I would have let Renault to race but not giving manufacturer points. Right now fans are the ones who’s punished and especially Spanish fans who are going to Valenci aonly to see Alonso.
And somebody said he should have parked his car on road side earlier, well have you see nany driver park his car on road side when U have a puncture? Cause that what Alonso was thinking, team didnät tell him his wheel gonna come off soon…
And about Kimi, he did nothing wrong, it was Webber not giving him room, so he had to steer to the right, which meant contact with Vettel.
I dont think Mohammed Ben Sulayem is as big a supporter of Max as it seems. He used the vote of confidence in Max as a short cut to the top of the FIA. His concerns may have been focused more with getting himself power than genuine concern for Max.
I’m surprised that Renault get suspended for fundamentally the same action as Brawn. If Brawn had better maintained their cars the damper wouldnt have come off and therefore not hit Massa.
Loose wheels have happened for decades, and it is ludicrous to think that Renault did it on purpose. It was a mistake made under pressure, and the punishment should be the same as Brawn’s, ie nothing.
Stewards must take some responsability,when driving down the pit lane,you,could clearly see Alonso’s wheel was loose. Why was he not shown the black flag.