Formula One news
Scar left by Renault acts, says Jordan
17 September 2009Former team owner Eddie Jordan is stunned by Wednesday's news that former Renault team chiefs Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds seemingly instructed a deliberate crash in last year's Singapore Grand Prix, labelling the dangerous tactic as 'absolutely ridiculous'.
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| Jordan is now firm in the belief that the Piquet crash was deliberate |
Nelson Piquet Jr, sacked by Renault following the Hungarian Grand Prix this year, revealed that the team had instructed him to crash in last season's night race in order to aid team-mate Fernando Alonso's run to victory. With Renault having released a press release on Wednesday stating that Briatore and Symonds have now 'left the team', Jordan believes that the statement is more of an admission than anything else.
"Well a week ago I would have been very surprised but, after being at Monza for the weekend, much less so," he told the BBC. "The FIA seems to have clear-cut evidence that this is alleged to have actually happened, with the standing down of these two people - or Renault letting them go, I'm not exactly sure - but I get the impression that it was no longer tenable that they could stay in."
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| Pat Symonds, ex-Director of Engineering at Renault F1 |
Furthermore, the television pundit also holds the opinion that the team announcement is nothing short of an early confession ahead of its FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) hearing on Monday 21 September. "Well, I think they're not contesting it - by suggesting that they're not going to contest the allegations is in itself an admission," Jordan continued. "That's how I see it; legally, there may be a different argument of course but, just as a normal person on the street, I think this is a clear-cut admission and I am surprised."
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| Flavio Briatore, ex-Team Principal of Renault F1 |
Having pioneered his own racing team through junior formulae to F1, Eddie is shocked at the revelations. "This is a story that, even in your mindset, you couldn't set up," he went on. "How would you go to tell a driver: 'Look, if you want to keep your seat you've got to do this'…it's just not something…because the ramifications with the safety - safety of the marshals, safety of the driver - you're asking somebody to do something which is absolutely ridiculous.
"I ran a team for nearly thirty years and I can't comprehend, I just can't get it through my mind that that is even part of the agenda; the mindset to actually do that, I don't know why or how desperate they were - maybe Renault were putting pressure on performance, maybe other things, I don't know what goes on in teams but certainly in the Jordan team you would contemplate all sorts of things but you certainly couldn't contemplate that. It just brings the team or the sport or the people in management and it leaves a scar."
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