F1 Racing UK – August 2019

56 F1 RACING AUGUST 2019

STATE

OF DECAY

By mid-2008 Enstone wasbeginning to get

on top of its chassis issues butcoming under

increasing pressure from the Renaultboard to

deliver victories. It was this, and the threat of

job losses or outright closure as the road car

market wobbled during theglobal financial

crisis, that prompted ‘Crashgate’, in which

Briatore conspired to disrupt the Singapore

Grand Prix such that Alonso won it. Posterity

now renders thesheer folly of this in even

starker contrast: Alonso went on to win the

following race, in Japan, completely on merit.

The egregious act in Singapore was unnecessary.

By the end of 2009 the team was up for sale

following the exposure of ‘Crashgate’, combined

with another string of poor results. Briatore and

chief engineer Pat Symonds received lengthy

bans from motorsport and Renault began

scaling back its role in F1 to that of engine

supplier as the Luxembourg-based investment

company Genii Capitaltook a majority share

in the race team. Renault chairman and CEO

Carlos Ghosn believed engine supply would

provide both a revenue stream andsufficient

branding kudos; he would be proved wrong

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