Briatore and Symonds Leave Renault

The crash-gate saga has made its first victims in the Renault garage. As of today, Flavio Briatore (team boss) and Pat Symonds (head of engineering) are no longer active members of the Enstone based team. The French manufacturer today issued an official statement, in which they confirm the two members have left the team amid the race-fixing allegations.

This way, Renault will try to push for an exemption from the FIA punishment – if any – in the famous scandal, as Briatore and Symonds will appear before the World Motor Sport Council on September 21st as individuals, rather that Renault employees.

It's worth mentioning that Symonds has already received immunity from the FIA ahead of the aforementioned hearing, in exchange of complete information on the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix happenings.

“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,” said the statement from Renault.

“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,” added the statement.

However, as confirmed by the ruling body a couple of weeks ago, the ones charged with race-fixing for the last year's events are Renault, and not Briatore or Symonds themselves. Therefore, the French manufacturer is unlikely to escape the judging process by the WMSC next week.