Renault Escapes Punishment In F1 Row

Despite being found guilty of breaching F1 regulations, the Renault F1 team has escaped punishment following accusations of spying by rival team McLaren.

Motorsport governing body the FIA found Renault guilty of breaching F1 regulations by having rival team McLaren data in their possession.

However the FIA opted to impose no penalty on former world champions Renault.

The Renault case surrounded engineer Phil Mackereth, who joined the team from McLaren in September 2006 and took with him information belonging to McLaren on 11 floppy disks.

The information contained details of the McLaren fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system, hydraulic control system and a novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007 McLaren cars.

The information was viewed by nine members of Renault’s staff and following an internal investigation, the team suspended Mackereth and returned the floppy disks to McLaren.

The FIA issued a statement explaining its reason for not punishing Renault despite its World Motorsport Council (WMSC) finding them guilty.

‘The WMSC concluded that there was insufficient evidence to establish that the (McLaren) information was used in such a way as to interfere with or to have an impact on the championship.

‘It should be noted that in the event of new information coming to light which calls into question the WMSC’s conclusions in this decision, this matter may be re-opened by the FIA.’

The statement also noted ‘a number of very unsatisfactory elements were noted during the deliberations’.

Renault reacted to the decision through a statement from team boss Flavio Briatore, who said: ‘I would like to thank Renault, our title sponsor ING and all our partners for their wholehearted support during this sensitive period. I also wish to pay tribute to the team, which has handled the matter with integrity and dignity.’

McLaren had themselves been found guilty of spying on rival team Ferrari for which they were handed a record £50m fine by the FIA and deducted all their constructors’ championship points.

However, commenting on the Renault decision, McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said: ‘We made the case to the World Motor Sport Council that we thought it wasn’t appropriate to put the sort of penalty on any team that we suffered. We made that very clear, we weren’t pushing for that, but we believe it to be a serious case.’

McLaren face further scrutiny by the FIA today who are investigating further to ensure that no Ferrari data appears in next year’s McLaren car.