Alonso Knew Nothing about Renault's Plan

Even if Renault are to be found guilty in the controversial crash-gate after the World Motor Sport Council meeting on September 21st, double world champion Fernando Alonso doesn't risk any penalty from Formula One's ruling body. Although he benefited from Nelson Piquet Jr.'s crash during the 2008 Singapore GP – which later brought him the win – the Spaniard insisted he had no knowledge of a pre-race plan set up by the team bosses.

According to British publication Autosport, a report submitted to the WMSC prior to their meeting two weeks from now states that Alonso “knew nothing of the alleged plan to cause a deliberate crash.”

The Spaniard was interviewed by the FIA stewards at Spa two weekends ago, during the investigation conducted by the ruling body prior to charging the Enstone based team with fixing the aforementioned race. He constantly denied having anything to do with the plan, saying that he preferred to enter the pit box earlier in the race as part of a more aggressive approach that Sunday.

Prior to the Singapore race, Alonso had managed the fastest times in the practice sessions that weekend, and only a mechanical mistake on his R28 on Saturday prevented him from starting the race from a good position in the field.

Earlier today, the same Autosport journalists reported that Piquet had a long conversation with Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds a few hours before the race, in order to set up the strategy for the race. It was during that conversation that the idea of fixing a crash appeared, only the two parties now blame each other.

While Piquet said it was the two team's bosses that told him to deliberately crash during Lap 13 or 14 as part of Renault's strategy to ease Alonso into the lead, Symonds argued it was Piquet's idea to begin with. In addition, the Renault official said nothing ever materialized during the race, regardless of what came up during that meeting.