How can F1 find justice? Tue Sep 22 01:04PM

Tue Sep 22 01:04PM

Formula One is consistently criticised for the inconsistency of its punishments handed out when teams do wrong - but is it just part of life or is it time for an organisational overhaul?

The Renault race-fixing scandal has taken Formula One to new levels of controversy. Teams have always tried to bend the rules in design and development, tried to gain advantage by making illegal changes to their equipment or tried to influence the outcome of races using team orders, but the history books have not revealed another situation in which one driver has deliberately crashed to benefit his team-mate.

When Nelson Piquet hit the wall in Singapore on lap 12 to bring out the safety car, he effectively handed the race to his team-mate Fernando Alonso. Alonso still had a lot to do, but he ultimately came home victorious - and not only did he add an unrightful victory to Renault's tally in the F1 records, it affected the outcome of the World Championship.

So given such a significant outcome, was Renault's two-year suspended sentence and the motorsport bans on the plot's apparent instigators Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds (with Piquet avoiding the same by virtue of immunity) punishment enough?

There are many opinions, but the difficulty is that unlike diving in football or drugs in the Olympics, each crime in Formula One is different. Below is a selection (but not an exhaustive list) of recent crimes and punishments:

2009: Renault guilty of race-fixing in Singapore

Punishment: Handed a two-year suspended ban with team boss Flavio Briatore and engineering chief Pat Symonds banned from motorsport, but no points deducted.

2009: McLaren guilty of lying to cover up a result gain in Australia

Punishment: Stripped of all constructors' points from that race and handed a three-race suspended ban. The team also took their own action before the trial and sacked team manager Dave Ryan while team boss Ron Dennis also stepped down.

2007: McLaren guilty of spying on Ferrari

Punishment: Handed a record £50 million fine and had all points in the constructors' championship removed for that year.

2006: Schumacher guilty of blocking the track in Monaco qualifying

Punishment: Stripped of his pole position but no further punishment.

2005: BAR guilty of carrying extra fuel in a hidden tank

Punishment: A two-race team ban but no punishment for specific team members.

2004: Ferrari accused over position switching in Austria

Punishment: Fined $1m (half of which was suspended) not for position switching but for improper conduct on the podium.

1997: Schumacher found guilty of hitting Jacques Villeneuve in Jerez

Punishment: Schumacher was removed from second place in the championship.

Cheating in Formula One is never going to be black and white but in all cases, to deem whether the punishment fits the crime, it should be looked at from two angles - the penalty to right the wrong, then the penalty to punish the crime itself.

Renault's race-fixing incident was a crime that involved direct on-track action, so it can be best compared with McLaren's lie-gate scandal, Schumacher's track-blocking incident, Ferrari's position switching and Schumacher's Villeneuve crash.

Ferrari's position switching back in 2004 seemed a massive deal at the time because Barrichello moved over to allow Schumacher past so deliberately. But at the end of the day, the two team-mates were running one-two, no other team was affected and team orders have always been a part of the sport. No penalty was therefore needed to correct the wrong and the punishment, ultimately, seemed about right.

Schumacher's move on Villeneuve in 1997, in which he deliberately hit the Canadian's Williams in an effort to knock him out the race, was self-instigated, which is why he alone was punished. In the end, the incident had little effect on the outcome of the world championship as the Canadian won the title in any case, so no penalty was needed to right the wrong (although it is believed Schumacher would have been stripped of the title had he won it). However, the German did get away without any punishment for the incident.

In Monaco in 2006, Schumacher deliberately blocked the track and in doing so he directly affected the performance of his competitors. This is a very similar incident to the Renault case, but the difference was it was played out in qualifying. Cheating is cheating, whenever you do it, but by removing Schumacher from the pole the wrong was made right, as it put him out of contention for victory. Again, however, he was not punished further for his actions.

In McLaren's case this year, the incident on track was a squabble over a minor position and it was McLaren's deliberate lie that caused all the commotion. Removing McLaren from the results of the race corrected the injustice, but no fine was handed out and a suspended ban seemed a small price to pay for their actions - although McLaren had already handed out their own punishment as team boss Ron Dennis stepped down and instigator Dave Ryan was sacked.

So did Renault's punishment follow suit?

Piquet's crash effectively handed a huge advantage to Alonso, but as stated before, the Spaniard still had most of the race to complete to ensure victory. Seen in that sense, the race-fix was more of a race-assistance. However, it is clear that the intention was to ensure Alonso won the race, and that is what was achieved - so surely to correct the wrong, Alonso's race victory should have been taken away.

However, the safety car also affected the entire field, so the whole result was affected by Piquet's crash. Who knows who would have won without that? So as it was very difficult to decide how to right the wrong, the FIA may have been sensible to leave it as is, especially as the incident was in a championship that had already been concluded.

In terms of punishing the crime, the approach is similar to that taken with McLaren after the lie-gate scandal - a suspended race ban and the removal of key personnel from the team.

Whoever instigated the crash idea, all those punished (save Piquet, with his immunity) are clearly guilty of acting upon it. Their decision to walk, like McLaren's decision to wave goodbye to Ryan and Dennis, was right - but in this case the FIA felt the need to add long bans on top. In this instance, it must also not be forgotten, Renault did pay a "generous" donation to the FIA's road safety programmes - the amount of which has been undisclosed but could be seen as a significant hidden fine.

Piquet has since insisted that "the most positive thing to come from bringing this to the attention of the FIA is that nothing like it will ever happen again." But that is highly debatable.

While the consistency of the most recent verdicts may be heading along the right lines, the strength of the punishments is hardly a deterrent. Blatant cheating should be punished by at least a ban - as it is in many other sports. Suspended bans are almost irrelevant.

Formula One will always have controversy - it is the nature of sport, even of life, that some people will try to find ways of dishonestly getting what they want. Now, however, there is a great opportunity to bring even greater consistency to the table.

It would be easy for the FIA to clearly split penalties between the correction of the crime and the punishment for it - and with a new incumbent soon to be voted in, we can only hope he will focus on a consistent and open justice system for Formula One.