ALL AUTOCARS

The consensus of opinion following yesterday’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) and the lifetime ban of the Renault team – suspended for two years – was that the team escaped lightly from what has been perceived as the worst case of cheating in the history of Formula One.

Flavio Briatore was handed a lifetime ban from any FIA sanctioned series, while co-conspirator Pat Symonds received a five year ban. The team itself however were not fined and did not have any points deducted as had been widely predicted. Instead the team was forced to pay the costs of the investigation – estimated at US $1.6m - and make an undisclosed contribution to the FIA’s safety programme.

“A suspended two year ban for Renault means nothing, they’re not really going to do that again are they,” Martin Brundle told the BBC. “They’re having to put some money into the safety fund - we don’t know how much. Many will perceive them as having been treated quite lightly compared to say McLaren of 2007.”

FIA president Max Mosley claimed that the penalty handed out was the “harshest one we can inflict,” something that few publicly support given that it is suspended - and diametrically opposed to the punishment faced by McLaren when they were found guilty of breaching the same regulation (Article 151c) in 2007. The WMSC found McLaren guilty of possessing confidential data from Ferrari and the team were hit with a US $100m fine - which brings up the issue of collective responsibility as well as parity.

“The FIA cannot have it both ways,” reported the Times.”The bill for the investigation is about $1.6 million, which makes Renault’s sanction roughly $98.4 million cheaper [than that faced by McLaren]”. Spain’s El Mundo agreed, calling crash-gate “a scandal without precedent and almost without punishment.”

The Daily Mail likened Renault’s feat to “The Great Escape”, arguing that the French team “should not only be permanently expelled from the track, but face serious criminal charges.”

Singapore newspaper The Straits Times accused F1’s governing body of “one of sport’s biggest cop-outs” and said by not harshly penalising the deliberate crash, the FIA is telling F1’s fans and marshals “that their lives are far less important than possibly losing the support of a car-making giant.”

The New York Times agreed that the FIA had moved to safeguard “the participation of one of its most powerful and wealthy sponsors”, and Britain’s Daily Telegraph said “no one had foreseen quite how lenient the punishment would be”.

The decision clearly pins the blame on three individuals, two of which have been banned from the sport and one who was granted immunity for ‘blowing the whistle’. In the past, ‘rogue’ activities from individuals employed by a team have resulted in the whole team being punished, be that in Formula One or the World Rally Championship.

It is of little surprise that headlines such as “Fury as Renault get easy ride over crash-gate” (The Times), “Renault are lucky to get away with suspended ban” (The Guardian) and “Teams are in the driving seat” (The Independent) are adorning the back pages of our newspapers.

Max Mosley can talk of the WMSC handing down the “harshest” penalty available to the governing body, but he defends the decision to penalise only the individual conspirators rather than revert to the principle of collective responsibility.

“Renault has demonstrated that they have absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place so it would be wrong to impose an immediate penalty,” Mosley insisted. “The blame has been placed where it should be placed and it’s the right decision.”

Clearly not everyone is buying Mosley’s line. Ari Vatanen, an independent candidate to succeed Mosley in October’s presidential elections, said the fact that the world smells an inside deal strengthens his case for “absolutely independent justice” in these sorts of disciplinary matters. World champion Damon Hill agreed. “Knowing what we know, we cannot dissociate this from the power play going on behind the scenes for control of Formula One,” he said.

French industry minister Christian Estrosi. “It is a good thing for French industry and a good thing for the sport in general,” he told L’Equipe.”

Double world champion Mika Hakkinen meanwhile simply wants the sport to move on from the latest controversy. “The show must go on,” he told Reuters. “People who have done wrong, they need a penalty. Life has to go on. I think what is important now is a great grand prix is coming…”