FIA President Max Mosley has rebuked suggestions that Renault got off lightly with a two year suspended ban for fixing the Singapore Grand Prix.
The FIA had a raft of punishments at its disposal, including permanent exclusion from the sport, but in light of the fact that Renault accepted the allegations and swiftly axed team boss Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds the FIA dealt the team the softer penalty of a two year suspended ban, reserving a tougher life ban sentence for Briatore and a five year ban for Symonds.
The decision has received criticism that Renault got off too lightly, but Max Mosley has defended the verdict of the World Motorsport Council on Monday.
“I think it’s the right decision,” he said. “I think the blame has been placed where the blame should be placed. The penalty that we’ve imposed is the harshest one we can impose, which is disqualification, complete exclusion from the sport.
“However, because Renault have demonstrated that they had absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place – even the Renault F1 team didn’t have, still less does the company have any responsibility at all – it would be wrong in the circumstances to impose an immediate penalty.”
