We have heard of match fixing in sports like football, wrestling, cricket, tennis, to name a few. It surely would have come as a shock to us that match fixing had also occurred in F1 car racing and what a ‘match fixing’ it was!
Nelson Piquet Jr, the driver of the Renault team crashed his car at the 14th lap of the September 28, 2008, Singapore Grand Prix, as was instructed by some Renault officials, so that it would inconvenient the other drivers and his compatriot, driver Fernando Alonso could win. And Alonso capitalized from it to ‘win’ the championship! This is what I call, in Saddam Hussein’s favorite oft-used phrase, ‘mother of all’ cheatings! Didn’t they have a soul? Was life so cheap to them? Luckily, the driver Nelson Piquet Jr. and none of the spectators were hurt in the crash.
On Monday, September 24, 2009 in Paris, the Renault Formula One team was sentenced to a suspension of two years by FIA (International Automobile Federation). To me the punishment do not seem to be very severe. I wish they had imposed a ‘mother of all’ punishments as suited such a crime, a crime of cheating an estimated 600 million viewers.
By the way, for aspiring car race drivers of the world, there is a crash course waiting at Renaults! Ha ha! Happy crashing!.........oops…happy racing!
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