One of the biggest modern scandals in Formula 1 took place in 2008. A tough year at Renault saw the team take a risky gamble- asking one driver to crash to cause a safety car to be deployed, leading to their other driver finishing in pole. At the time, nobody batted an eye, but a disgruntled driver reported the move to the FIA, leading to a monumental collapse for Renault. Here’s what happened at Crashgate 2008.

Welcome to Lore Tuesdays, a weekly series through the off-season, telling you stories about the greatest moments in Formula 1 history. Each week, we will retell one of the greatest F1 moments in history and why it is so ingrained in Formula 1 history. Strap in, here we go!

Going into Crashgate 2008

The year was 2008. Formula 1 was trying to break into the Asian market, and Singapore was the play. The street race would take place at night around Marina Bay and would hopefully draw big crowds.

And while for Formula 1, this season was an exciting one, for Renault, it was anything but. Despite winning it all in 2005 and 2006, the 2008 car was slow and unreliable, and their formerly winning driver, Fernando Alonso, was unable to repeat his performance. Before Singapore, the two-time World Champion did not earn a single podium that season.

The Renault Team Principal at the time was Flavio Briatore. A man known for his shrewd, win-at-all-costs mentality. He was outspoken in the media, and his love of Alonso was very well-founded. He knew Alonso was his guy, and come hell or high water, he was going to make sure Alonso got everything he needed to succeed.

In the second seat was Nelson Piquet Jr., son of former world champion Nelson Piquet. However, unlike his father, the younger Piquet struggled to make any impact in F1. Briatore was not subtle in how he felt, calling out Piquet’s production and publicly threatening to replace the young driver. The pressure was on the 23-year-old driver to prove himself.

Enter the Singapore Grand Prix

Going into Singapore, Piquet Jr. had won a total of 13 points, and his career was on the line. However, Singapore did not start well for either Renault. Alonso made it to Q2 but qualified 15th, while Piquet Jr. couldn’t advance out of Q1 and started in 16th.

Here’s where the story really starts. Allegedly, after qualifying, Briatore and executive engineer Pat Symonds met with Piquet Jr. and laid out a plan. Alonso would pit very early in the race, changing tyres and refuelling. Piquet Jr. was then allegedly asked to crash his car, specifically on lap 14 at turn 17, and to make it look like an accident.

Given the tightness of this turn, it would trigger a safety car. Because Alonso had already pitted and was on fresh tyres, everyone else would have to pit, and then Alonso would be right out in front and able to finish on pole.

In exchange for crashing, Briatore and Symonds guaranteed Piquet Jr. his seat for the 2009 season. Given the pressure on him, Piquet Jr. agreed.

Race day at Crashgate 2008

On race day, Piquet Jr. slipped on turn 17 during the formation lap. This caused him to spin out, but he was able to continue racing. A sign of what was to come.

The race began with Felipe Massa of Ferrari on pole. Exactly 12 laps in, Alonso made his pitstop, with commentators calling out the strategy “odd” and saying it “made no sense”. However, Renault had this plan up its sleeve. Alonso rejoined the race in last.

In lap 14, right at turn 17, Piquet Jr. turned too sharply right into the wall. His car’s nose was destroyed, and he stopped right in the middle of the track. Unhurt, Piquet Jr. walked out of the car and off the track.

The safety car was deployed immediately. Due to safety car rules at the time, teams could not pit until all the cars had bunched up behind the safety car. This meant drivers who went in to pit under safety car conditions would rejoin the race at the back of the field. Teams that pitted right after the safety car conditions would suffer the same issue of being right at the back as well.

Having not pitted, every team was forced to change their tyres and refuel, which Alonso had already done. He gained the lead in the back half of the race and would go on to win the Singapore Grand Prix.

At the time, nobody was the wiser. Commentators described the strategy as “brilliant”, and while a few questioned Piquet Jr.’s crash and speculated that this was premeditated, there was nothing substantive to prove that it was.

Finishing the 2008 season for Renault

The rest of the season wasn’t much better for Renault. Piquet Jr. earned six more points in the final three races, while Alonso won the next race in Japan, finished fourth in China, and then second in the final race in Brazil.

While he was leading the race at the time of the crash, Felipe Massa would go on to finish the race in 13th. This massively hurt his chances of winning the Drivers’ Championship, and he would go on to lose to Lewis Hamilton by a single point on the final race day of the season.

The 2009 Formula 1 season for Renault

After the season, Renault held up their end of the bargain. Despite his terrible season, they retained Piquet Jr. for the 2009 season.

However, that season was no better for Piquet Jr. While Alonso was picking up points, Piquet Jr. couldn’t pick up even a single point, and as the season wore on, the criticism of the Brazilian driver got louder.

Following the Hungarian Grand Prix in August 2009, Renault replaced Piquet Jr. with Romain Grosjean. With zero points and multiple call-outs, the team felt they had no other choice but to replace him.

But Renault and Piquet Jr. had a deal. Naturally, the young driver felt betrayed by his team. They promised him a seat for crashing, and then pulled it away from him. Now, with his performance, there was no future for him left in F1. If they were going to ruin his career, he wasn’t going down without a fight.

Piquet Jr. goes public

In late August, reports emerged that Piquet Jr. had been told to crash in Singapore. The FIA announced that it would be investigating immediately. Then, on September 4th, it formally charged Renault for breaching sporting codes by conspiring to cause a collision to give its other driver an advantage.

Renault refused to comment on the matter at the time, but Piquet Jr. did make statements to the FIA, saying the allegations were true. Alonso denied any knowledge of the strategy. FIA President Max Mosley at the time stated that there would be no further action against Piquet Jr., even if the allegations were true.

Determined not to go down without a fight, Renault took Piquet Jr. to court for making false allegations and attempting to blackmail the team. Naturally, Piquet Jr. came out publicly saying that he would not be “bullied into making a decision [he would] regret”.

On September 16th, Renault issued a statement that they would not be contesting the allegations and that both Briatore and Symonds had stepped down from the team. Briatore later said that he resigned to save the team, as was his job.

Following this, the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) met to hear this case, and after their deliberations, suspended Renault for two years. Briatore was banned indefinitely, while Symonds received a five-year ban for their roles. The only thing that kept Renault from a permanent ban was that they acted swiftly in removing Briatore and Symonds.

Renault’s biggest sponsors subsequently ended their involvement with the team.

Briatore successfully appealed the sentence subsequently, and both his and Symonds’ bans were overturned. The FIA then appealed that appeal, and a decision was reached for them both to be out of Formula 1 until 2013.

Where is everyone today?

Piquet Jr. would never find his way back into Formula 1. He moved to NASCAR for the next few seasons, before heading to Formula E in 2014-15. He has since done various motorsport competitions, and spent this year with the Stock Car Pro Series across South America.

After being forced out of Formula 1, Briatore never really left the sport. He spent the next 15 years on the sidelines, working closely with Fernando Alonso and as a commentator.

In May of last year, he joined Alpine’s parent company as an Executive Advisor for the Formula One Division at Enstone. Effectively, he was serving as the Team Boss, without holding the title. After Team Principal Oliver Oakes resigned midway through this season, he assumed the role in everything but name.

Symonds, meanwhile, served as a consultant in 2011 for Virgin Racing, advising the team on its internal operations. Following his ban in 2013, he joined Williams as the Chief Technical Officer, before moving over to Formula One itself, as the group’s Chief Technical Officer.

Midway through last year, it was announced he would join Cadillac as an engineering consultant. As the team joins the grid next year, expect him to play a more prominent role.

Impact of Crashgate 2008

Crashgate will go down as one of the biggest sporting scandals of all time, and easily the biggest in all of motorsports. No race is as infamous as this one in Singapore, and it’s constantly talked about every time F1 goes to the island nation.

Despite all the protections in place against match-fixing, the win-at-all-costs mentality is always there, and this will go down as the best example of what happens when that goes too far.