F1's sticky situation

"I confirm the meeting with Piquet on Sunday morning, but nothing like that was ever talked about." F. Briatore

"It's true, during the Sunday meeting with Piquet the issue of deliberately causing a SC deployment came up, but it was proposed by Piquet himself" P. Symonds

It's a simple matter for the FIA now of who to believe. Nelson Piquet Jr, who is accusing the Renault F1 team of colluding with him to cause a crash at the right point in the race to hand the win to Fernando Alonso. Flavio Briatore who admits a meeting took place but claims the issue was never discussed (or did last time anyone may have heard from him). Pat Symonds who claims the issue was brought up but only by the driver himself and was rejected by the team.

If Flavio is to be believed then Renault are the victims of a bitter former driver looking for payback. This seems the most logical choice initially, but then you remember than Nelson Piquet (the father of the driver in question and three time world champion) was the man who made the initial claim, not his son. Nelson is not a man to stake his reputation on a lie. Then we have the Symonds version. To believe this we must also believe that a team who new that a deliberate crash was in their drivers mind then saw him crash and thought nothing of it. The whole right rear corner of Nelsinho's car was destroyed. Not a cheap matter by any stretch of the imagination. So why was he not sacked if the team had reason to believe he had willfully destroyed one of their cars. Not only that but should it come out that Piquet had carried out his plan, say nearly a year later, the teams name would be dragged through the mud and their reputation left in tatters.


No matter what the result of the investigation into the events surrounding Fernando Alonso's surprise win at Singapore last September the implications for the sport have to be massive. This isn't just a crash changing the outcome of a race, this is a team conspiring internally to endanger the lives not only of it's own drivers but the rest of the drivers on the grid. This is a team attempting to artificially engineer a situation in which their driver would win a race with little effort.

The name of F1 has already been dragged through the mud enough over the last few years. The acrimony of Fernando Alonso's time at McLaren. The 'spygate' scandal involving McLaren (again) having a dossier on Ferrari's car in their possession. Renault being accused of the same crime involving McLaren data. Max Mosley's penchant for S&M. The threatened FOTA breakaway leading to the potential ousting of Mosley from his position at the head of the FIA, the sports governing body. The lying scandal that hit the Australian Grand Prix when McLaren's Davey Ryan and Lewis Hamilton lied to the stewards to gain a position after the race. The penalty given to Lewis Hamilton, rightly or wrongly, at Spa in 2008. Over the last few years F1 has become a laughing stock, riddled with scandal at every turn. Now, just as the sport seems finally in harmony, we are hit by what could be perceived as the worst scandal yet. Anybody who thought the worst was over should shove their head back into the sand again for a while.


The perception outside of the F1 community and it's fans is already that it's a rich mans play world. The fact that they all appear to be dishonest just goes further to disillusioning any 'floating fans' who might have felt alienated by the events they've seen unfold. The 'crashgate' saga (as it stereotypically must be called now) brings a huge amount of media attention back onto F1, this attention will for a while boost TV audiences baying for a scandal. In the long run people are going to look at F1 and think 'Why should I watch that? Their all dishonest anyway'. Personally I pray that it didn't happen, I hope that despite the evidence mounting against Renault it comes out that Nelson Piquet was just a bitter father who'd seen his son rejected and an investment of millions come to nought. F1 will survive this scandal, but it will take a long time to recover the confidence of it's audience.

The stream that changed F1

It's a small stream running through the Liege region of Belgium. In the whole of it's 15km length the Eau Rouge stream has no remarkable features and is of no significance in the geological world. Yet utter those two French words to anyone who's ever seen a motor race and they will evoke feelings that even words like Senna struggle to produce. Below is a picture of the stream to demonstrate just unremarkable it is:

Picturesque? Yes. A nice place to be? Yes. One of the most famous names in motorsports? You bet.

Of course it's not the stream itself that brings the fame, but the landscape that it has carved through the woodlands that make the name famous. The area around it is a valley carved out of the mountainsides over thousands of years. Allowing for a wooded area to be transformed into possibly the most stunning location an F1 car has driven round for many a year. Of course given that there are numerous towns and villages in the area there had to be roads built to get about. These criss-crossed the area in the early part of the 20th century forming an almost perfect triangle between the towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy and Stavelot, so, humans being humans, people had to have a race. The circuit that was created was one of the fastest and most dangerous in the world. However, all the track did around the annoying stream it had to cross was loop round in a slow section called Ancienne Douane. However in 1939 the organisers decided to use a short cut that swept up the valley giving the circuit a much better flow. I doubt they realised they icon they had just created.

The corner, existing now in the same form it has since 1939, is the first point after the start finish straight at which the circuit crosses the stream. It is approached on a steep decline down the side of the valley from the La Source hairpin (in itself an evocative name). The cars launch over the stream into a massive compression as they flick to the left, bottoming out as they are launched up the other side of the valley at 180mph. They then navigate the ferocious Radillon corner (strictly speaking 'Eau Rouge' is only the left flick at the bottom) arching back to the right before hurling themselves to the left over the blind summit.

The Main reason for the awe inspired by the group of corners is simply the gradient. It is not only the steepest gradient in F1 but comes after a descent that would seem steep were it not for it's position. The combination of the two creates forces not seen elsewhere in F1. The car is pulled downwards by gravity whilst being forced upwards by the gradient. The driver is flung to the right, left and then back to the right again whilst undergoing all this. The cars 'bottom out' as they go beyond the limit of their suspension travel and the whole chassis contorts under the enormous loads its being put under. The forces involved are mind boggling. Nowadays the corner is easily flat out in an F1 car, but the knowledge of this doesn't fit with the sounds you hear as the cars tackle it. Purely due to the gradient the cars decelerate up the slope. That's more than 800 bhp being reigned in purely by gravity. Astonishing.

F1's stars of tomorrow tackle Radillon

The impact that the Eau Rouge section has on people is massive. Walking round the circuit for the first time people immediately plan when they are going to see Eau Rouge. If you walk from the Les Combes entrances clockwise round the circuit your first glimpse of the area is from the Bus Stop area. It's not of the track, just a view of the tree line across the valley taking a sudden, noticeable dip. People who come to this area for the first time point across the valley. No matter where they're from it sets the pulse racing. The problem with writing about Eau Rouge is that words and pictures can never, ever, do it justice. Not one bit. The gradient is steeper than any picture shows it to be. The speeds cars go through there is just mind boggling and the blindness (if that's a word) of the crest of Radillon is unbelievable. Don't believe me? How about Fernando Alonso?:

"You come into the corner downhill, have a sudden change [of direction] at the bottom and then go very steep uphill. From the cockpit, you cannot see the exit and as you come over the crest, you don't know where you will land. It is a crucial corner for the timed lap, and also in the race, because you have a long uphill straight afterwards where you can lose a lot of time if you make a mistake. But it is also an important corner for the driver's feeling. It makes a special impression every lap, because you also have a compression in your body as you go through the bottom of the corner. It is very strange - but good fun as well."

Meanwhile below all this, the stream keeps on its gentle way through the mountains, none the wiser of it's lasting impact.

So that was Spa? To say it lived up to expectations would not do it justice at all. The place is something else from the moment you arrive. When on a coach you're sent off on what is deemed to be a shorter route... through a tiny village on a hillside. The village it turns out is also the coach car park. This after you've spent at least an hour going down a single track lane through the woods from the main motorway.

As you walk up to the entrance all you can hear is the cars, not because of proximity but simply because of the location of the track. It's set right on the hillsides around the small stream of Eau Rouge, a name that almost dwarfs that of the track with it's significance. The hillsides steep gradient amplifies the already mesmerising sound, filling the adjacent valley and heightening the sense of excitement as you approach. If you head to your left as you approach your sense of excitement will only be heightened as you find your way blocked by orange jacketed officialdom unless you posses a gold ticket. The tunnel under the track is the only way for you to go, so you can still hear the cars but again your view is blocked, so under you go, into a small area surrounded by fellow fans all rushing to get toward the viewing areas. Then, suddenly, there it is. You're stood looking down on the cars below you as your first glimpse is from about 30 feet above the track. No other track I have been to puts you in this position. You're stood on the edge of a cliff looking down on the track, with people in front of you who have been there for hours. It's not just a track, newer tracks like Valencia the week before do not offer this kind of experience. This is before you've even approached the well known areas, this is an un-named corner between Rivage and Pouhon. That's the brilliance of Spa. Everywhere has something to offer, I didn't find myself at a single spot where there wasn't either an amazing view of the track or something unique.

Perched on the edge of the path you get a great view of the cars

So the First impressions are good, but that's nothing yet. Wander a little further and your at what the drivers say is one of the most difficult corners in the world; the double apexed Pouhon. A corner approached by both cars and fans down a steep hill, it has a massive spectator bank to the right and trees obscuring the rest of the corner to the left. The cars dive into a cauldron cocooning them between fans and failure, desperately attempting to judge the one downshift that will be the only thing that slows them through the corner. A couple of seconds late and they'll hit the corner too fast, to early and the electronics on the gearbox override the order to change down. Yet again the setting of the circuit causes the atmosphere to be electric. People are perched on the top of the bank in chairs 4 deep but at the back you can still see perfectly. Meanwhile thousands more are sat on the steep bank, often dug in with mini shovels. Behind them Sausages and Hamburgers are being served alonside Waffles and Beer. The whole atmosphere is intoxicating. You can hear the cars straining against their gearboxes during the crucial change whilst turning and you feel a part of the whole experience.

Nico Rosberg Attempts to get Pouhon right

You can spectate on almost every part of the track with a general admission pass, in the next part of this post I'll talk about the Qualifying experience pressed up against the fence on the entrance to the bus stop...