Damon Hill says Renault's escape from heavy punishment despite influencing last year's Singapore GP is due to a power struggle in F1.
Former world champion says FIA decision is "expedient"
Former world champion Damon Hill has said Renault's escape from heavy punishment despite admitting they deliberately ordered driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash in last year's Singapore Grand Prix is down to a power struggle that is "ruining the sport".
The team were handed a two-year suspended ban after a meeting of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council on Monday in spite of the latter body's assertion that their behaviour was of "unparalleled severity".
By not issuing Renault with a heavy fine, docking them points or even banning them from Formula One, the perception is that the governing body, together with the sport's commercial rights controller, Bernie Ecclestone, is trying to ensure the manufacturer does not withdraw.
With Piquet himself handed immunity from punishment in return for blowing the whistle, it was former Renault team principal Flavio Briatore who found himself on the receiving end - the flamboyant Italian both being handed a lifetime ban from FIA-sanctioned events and prevented from managing drivers.
However, Briatore was also a leading light in plans pushed during the summer by the Formula One Teams' Association to launch their own breakaway series - his removal from the scene being no coincidence as far as Hill is concerned.
The 1996 title winner, now president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, also placed the punishment in the context of other teams who have fallen foul of the FIA - McLaren, for example, being fined $100 million two years ago for being caught in possession of secret Ferrari data.
"I'm not surprised they've let Renault off," he remarked. "You can't escape from the suspicion it was all very expedient given Briatore was also one of the leaders of the pressure group FOTA.
"No-one can excuse what happened to Piquet, it's totally abhorrent. That has been dealt with.
Not the whole story
"But it's not the whole story, and you have to put it into context in the way in which the FIA has treated breaches of the regulations over the years.
"Knowing what we know we can't disassociate this from the powerplay going on behind the scenes for control of F1, which has been going on for a very long time.
"It's a crying shame, and it has to stop because it's ruining the sport. It's utterly deplorable.
"Formula One has to ask itself whether it's just a very expensive form of entertainment.
"There is a whole book to be written on what's wrong with Formula One."
The team's former executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, was banned from motorsport for five years for his part in the scandal, his lighter punishment reflecting the "eternal regret and shame" he felt for being involved.
Explaining the WMSC's thinking behind the sanctions, FIA president Max Mosley said: "I think the blame has been placed where the blame should be placed.
"The penalty for Renault is disqualification, but suspended for two years, which means if they don't do something silly in the next two years, they don't have any problems.
"The penalty we have imposed is the harshest one we can inflict, which is disqualification, complete expulsion from the sport.
"However, because Renault have demonstrated they had absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place - that's to say Renault F1 the team didn't know, still less of course the company - it would be wrong in the circumstances to impose an immediate penalty."
