Renault get easy ride: British press

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-23 09:27

LONDON: British newspapers on Tuesday branded Renault's punishment over the "crashgate" affair lenient and questioned whether commercial pressures played a part in the FIA's decision.

Under headlines such as "Great Escape" and "Anger as Renault gets easy ride", newspapers said the soft punishment for Renault may have been aimed at convincing them to remain in the sport at a time when their commitment remains unclear.

"Certainly the expectation was that the team would escape a ban but no one had foreseen how lenient the punishment would be," motor racing correspondent Tom Cary said in the Daily Telegraph.

"Renault's future in F1 remains precarious and it is widely believed that the sentence may have been designed to help persuade the French manufacturer to stay in the sport," he said.

The FIA was criticized for allowing the fear that Renault might leave to cloud its thinking when it handed the manufacturer the suspended ban after a hearing in Paris, according to The Times.

"I'm not surprised they've let Renault off," British former F1 world champion Damon Hill said.

"It's a crying shame for the sport," he said.

"F1 has to ask itself, is it just a very expensive form of entertainment or a proper sport?"

The Guardian pointed to the fact that McLaren were fined a massive $100 million (62 million pounds, 67 million euros) in 2007 and stripped of points for their role in obtaining confidential information from rival Ferrari in the "spygate" scandal.

The newspaper said however that McLaren suffered such a punishment largely because they refused to come clean over the affair.