Renault Creates a New Paradigm for 'Team Orders'

Like the Dodo, Fair Play in Formula One (and Perhaps Sports In General) is Dead.
(Image Credits: http://lawyerkm.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/dodo_11.jpg)

With all the hubbub recently over such important issues as Serena Williams threatening violence against a US Open line judge, Kanye West performing one of the strangest social faux pas in recent memory, and, oh little things like health care reform, economic downturns, and the opening salvo of a trade war, you could be forgiven for missing this bombshell: Renault F1 has all but admitted that they conspired to fix a race. Not in any small fashion, mind you. This isn't Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello being so dominant they try to trick the timing equipment into a nearly impossible dead heat. No, this was a blatant, tactical, and calculated action by a team to fake fortune, to create their own luck, and to hoodwink themselves onto the top step of the podium.

For a sport that desperately needed an image revamp after a controversy laden offseason, Formula One seems to be self-destructing in full public view. One manufacturer, BMW, has already declared its intent to leave the sport next season. Scandalous though he may be, Max Mosley has rightly pointed out that Formula One cannot stake its future on manufacturers, whose interests in the sport are far too ephemeral; extending only so far as profits, and success, allow. BMW has not won a world championship in four seasons' effort, therefore, they are cutting and running. How much longer will Toyota--who are rumored to have spent billions of dollars trying to build the perfect team--tolerate a lack of race wins, let alone championships? Now, it seems, the lot has fallen to Renault.

That a team could willfully ask one of its drivers to put his health, potentially even his life, just so that his teammate can have a better chance at winning is a damning indication of a deeply flawed culture within the Renault team. Only 15 years ago this type of crash could have killed Nelson Piquet, Jr. Is this an unforeseen knock-on from the superlative progress that the FIA and the Formula One teams have made in driver safety? Tell the old boy to get into a crash; he won't die. Make no mistake, the crash did not guarantee a win; Alonso's car could have easily come to a stop with a mechanical glitch, he could have had a real accident himself, or he could have been knocked off the track. Any number of things can happen; this is, after all, the nature of motorsport. As much science as Formula One teams like to put into the development of their cars, they still can only minimise, not remove, the uncertainty inherent in the sport. Renault's actions were the height of egotism and hubris; they are lucky to escape with banishment, if that is what it comes to. They deserved to have lived with the shame and horror of being the first team to suffer a driver fatality since 1994.

This is just another disheartening example of the erosion of sportsmanship in our increasingly self-centered and media-driven culture. Gene Wojciechowski wrote a marvelous article for ESPN.com in response to the Oregon-Boise State incident two weeks ago about how far we've come from days of respecting one's opponents and playing fair. Formula One teams, like Division I college football teams--with their massive budgets, stakes, and egos--are always looking for "the edge;" for that next thing that their competitors have yet to twig that keeps them out front. Often these advancements are on the cusp of legality; fulfilling the rules in word, though perhaps not in spirit. Yet Renault was not creatively interpreting a technical specification. They were tampering with the outcome of the race in a base, crass, and dangerous manner. When an organization sees itself as being above the rules, it is capable of anything, regardless of the dictates of honorable competition, fair play, or common sense.

As a follower of Formula One--ardently from 2001-2005 and casually since--I cannot see Renault remaining in the sport next year. Its star has been on the wane since Fernando Alonso won his world championships back in 2005 and 2006. The car has struggled to be relevant this year, and now there are the excoriating and damaging claims of such ludicrous and wanton flouting of the rules, let alone human decency. The CEO of the Renault Group, Carlos Ghosn, has never issued unqualified statements on the company's Formula One activities. In his own words, Mr. Ghosn stated that:

As long as we continue to perform well, we offer a good show, and obviously we are at the top level of Formula One, then there are not questions about the future in Formula One.

Mr. Ghosn also stated the importance of Formula One offering a "good return on investment" in order for Renault to continue funding the team. Unsurprising words from a man nicknamed "Le Cost Killer" for his slash and burn job that resurrected Nissan. No multinational corporation is going to stand having its name dragged through the muck in relation to breach of the rules of competition. Does Renault want to become a synonym for cheating? I doubt it. Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have stepped down, undoubtedly in an effort to stem the bleeding. Their efforts will be to no avail. When Nelson Piquet, Jr. crashed in 2008 he destroyed his car, the future of the Renault F1 team, and any good faith in the tattered shreds of the spirit of competition remaining in Formula One.