Het radiocontact tussen de belangrijkste personen in de Crash-gate

Het Renault F1 Team staat onder zware druk in de zogenaamde Crash-gate. Tijdens de Grand Prix van Singapore in 2008 crashte Nelson Piquet, terwijl teamgenoot Fernando Alonso daardoor de race won. Enkele weken geleden werd duidelijk dat er wel eens opzet in het spel kon zijn, waarna de FIA een onderzoek startte. Vandaag werd bekend dat Renault teambaas Flavio Briatore en Chief Engineer Pat Symonds op straat heeft gezet. Bovendien was tussen de regels door te lezen dat het team schuld bekende. Volgende week staat de hoorzitting van het World Motor Sport Council op het programma, waarbij de definitieve conclusie zal vallen.

Vandaag publiceerde de Britse krant The Times het radiocontact tussen de belangrijkste personen in de zaak. Lees hieronder het uitgeschreven verhaal en concludeer zelf.

Pat Symonds: “I can tell you now we are not three-stopping.”

Symonds: “Don't worry about fuel, because I'm going to get him (Fernando Alonso) out of this traffic earlier than that.”

Piquet: “What lap are we in? What lap are we in?”

Renault engineer: “He just asked 'what lap are we in?'”

Symonds: “Yeah, tell him that he's about to complete lap eight.”

Symonds: “No, just tell him, he is about, he's just completing, he's about to complete lap eight.”

...

Symonds: “Right, I'm going to...I think we're going to stop him just before we catch him (Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima, who was ahead of Alonso) and get him out of it, the reason being we've still got this worry on the fuel pump. It's only a couple of laps short. We're going to be stopping him early and we're going to go to lap 40.”

Symonds to engineer following Alonso's pit-stop: “Okay right, you've got to push him really bloody hard now. If he (Piquet) doesn't get past [Rubens] Barrichello, he's going nowhere – he's got to get past Barrichello this lap.”

Flavio Briatore: “Tell him, push.”

Piquet's race engineer: “Nelson, no excuses now, you've got to get past Barrichello. You've got four clicks straight-line advantage. Come on, you've got to push now, you must get past him.”

The Brazilian comes into heavy contact with the turn 17 wall a few minutes later.

Multiple voices at the same time: “Nelson's off. F***ing hell. Nelson's had a crash. I would say that would be a red flag. It's huge.”

Piquet: “Sorry guys. I had a little outing.”

Engineer: “Is he alright? Is he alright?”

Symonds: “Ask him if he's alright.”

Engineer: “Are you okay? Are you okay?”

Engineer: “Fernando's just gone past it.”

Engineer: “Okay, yellow flag.”

Piquet: “Yeah, I hit my head in the back. I think I'm okay.”

Engineer: “Okay, understood.”

Symonds: “Right (inaudible), stop him.”

Engineer: “Safety car, safety car, safety car, safety car. Fernando, safety car, mixture three.”

Symonds: “Tell him to be careful, turn 17 I think it is.”

Engineer: “F***ing hell that was a big shunt.”

Briatore: “F***ing hell...my every f***ing disgrace, f***ing, he's not a driver.”

Symonds: “What position is Fernando in?”

Engineer: “Well, we were 20, and we're first guy to pick the safety car up.”

Symonds: “Yeah, we're not...”

Engineer: “He will get away past it, but he's got to wait.”

Briatore: “What position we are now in all this?”

Symonds: “To be honest, I don't know Flavio. It's got to have been good for Fernando, but I honestly don't know where he is.”

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