ING Renault F1 Team Statement

The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

It also wishes to state that its managing director, Flavio Briatore and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team.

Before attending the hearing before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 21 September 2009, the team will not make any further comment.

Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds

From GMM

This a dramatic change of position for Renault, whose Briatore said at the previous Monza and Spa-Francorchamps races that he denies Nelson Piquet's claims about his Singapore crash being deliberate.

Symonds, however, had told FIA investigators that a deliberate crash - albeit he claims suggested by Piquet - was at least discussed prior to the inaugural Singapore night race.

At Monza, a media statement said 59-year-old Italian Briatore as well as the Renault team he leads had commenced criminal proceedings in France against the sacked driver and would alert the UK police about the "false allegations" and "blackmail".

Briatore's career in formula one and with the team dates back to its days as Benetton 20 years ago. Symonds, 56, has been with the team even longer, when in the early 80s it was known as Toleman.





Photo Credit : WRI2