Briatore and Symonds leave Renault

Renault announced in a press release that its team director Flavio Briatore and its technical director Pat Symonds are leaving the team with immediate effect. The statement also promises not to contest the cheating accusations before the World Motor Sport Council meeting scheduled for September 21, 2009.

The team is accused of having asked Nelson Piquet Jr. to deliberately cause an accident, prompting the deployment of the safety car to benefit his teammate Fernando Alonso.

The ING Renault F1 Team will not contest the recent FIA allegations regarding the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

The team also indicates that its general manager, Flavio Briatore, and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team.

Before attending the hearing before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on September 21, 2009, the team will not make any further comments.

Shortly after losing his seat at Renault, Nelson Piquet Jr. approached the FIA, stating that Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds asked him to intentionally crash into the wall and that this plan had been devised before the race.

The FIA investigators questioned Briatore, Symonds, and other team members during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

The evidence, including statements from Nelson Piquet Jr., telemetry data, and radio communications were revealed to the general public during the last Grand Prix weekend in Italy. Renault had also announced during that weekend that it was initiating legal proceedings against the Piquet family for scandalous and false allegations.

The FIA then offered immunity to Pat Symonds in exchange for full disclosure on the events surrounding this accident in Singapore in 2008.

Since it is the Renault team – rather than Briatore and Symonds themselves – that is targeted by the allegations, today’s announcement should probably have no impact on next week’s hearing. On the other hand, the names of the replacements have not been mentioned.

According to a statement from the Renault F1 Team