Monza – one of the most evocative racing circuits in the world. Steeped in history, and occasionally Latin histrionics, the track has been in use since 1922. It is one of the fastest circuits in the world, with cars on full throttle for a greater percentage of the lap than anywhere else. This weekend the Formula One circus descends upon it for the Italian Grand Prix.
Monza is a always a great place for Formula 1
But unfortunately it won’t be the racing that people will be talking about the most. Once again, the ugly face of cheating has appeared, with the Renault team being accused of deliberately causing a crash to influence the outcome of a race.
Incredibly, the race in question is last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, which was won by Renault’s Fernando Alonso against all odds. The Spaniard had endured a miserable qualifying session and started from 15th on the grid. He stopped for fuel on lap 12, far earlier than seemed necessary or even desirable, until that is his team-mate Nelson Piquet crashed on lap 14 bringing out the safety car. Others had to wait until the pit lane was open before stopping or take a penalty for stopping anyway because otherwise they would have run out of fuel. Either way, the end result was that Alonso ended up at the front and stayed there until the chequered flag.
There were a few raised eyebrows at the time, especially since Piquet crashed at Turn 17, where there were no cranes to lift his car off the track, meaning a safety car was essential. However, not many people seriously thought that a team would manipulate the outcome of a race in this way.
It now emerges that Piquet’s father, Nelson Piquet Snr, went to the FIA a short while ago to tell them that his son, who had recently been dropped from the team, had been instructed to crash at the event. Apparently there was a meeting the morning of the race between Piquet Jnr, team boss Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symmonds. Piquet alleges that, at this meeting, he was instructed to crash soon after Alonso had made his stop. Neither Briatore nor Symonds deny that a meeting took place, but they are claiming apparently that it was Piquet’s idea to crash. Either way, it’s ugly, it’s messy and it does Formula One no good whatsoever.
Daddy got involved
It is also unprecedented that the results of a previous season’s race should be called into question like this. If Alonso was stripped of the win retrospectively (although he says he wasn’t aware of the fixing), at least it wouldn’t alter the outcome of the world championship, since Felipe Massa failed to score and Lewis Hamilton, who finished third on the road, would move up to second.
The hearing into the charge against Renault will take place on 21 September and if the team is found guilty it is very likely that the Renault board will pull the plug on its F1 programme at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Giancarlo Fisichella will be making his Ferrari debut at his home race and Jenson Button will be hoping to put an end to his miserable recent run and score more points than his championship rivals Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
For a short while on Sunday we will be able to concentrate on the action on track and not the shenanigans off it. But I do sometimes wonder, is there such a thing as a pure sport left these days?
