Latest laugh-riot political sewage from the bowels of Formula One?

Race fixing!

Not this season… last year…. which means what… if Renault is found guilty of manipulating races, they wipe out the points and award the championship to somebody else?

Hee! Hee!

Renault is  under investigation by Formula 1′s governing body, the FIA for ‘alleged incidents’ at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, the inaugural race held around the Marina Bay street circuit in the Far-Eastern city-state just under a year ago.

The ground-breaking flood-lit race at night, a first for F-1, was won by then 2-time World Champ Fernando Alonso, but many believe he got lucky, because of a timely safety/pace car period.

Alonso had a terrible qualifying, 15th on the starting grid. But like a miracle, the safety car emerged on lap 14,  just after Alonso had made his first pit-stop, and with just about everyone else pitting, he was suddenly in the lead and took it the rest of the way to checkers for the win.

They called out the safety car for a crash involving Alonso’s then Renault team-mate Nelson Piquet Junior, and the allogation is Renault ordered Piquet to crash deliberately to bring out the pace car, to set up Alonso for the lead and the win.

At the time, Piquet dismissed suggestions that he had crashed on purpose, insisting that he had merely been pushing too hard, but we’re told fresh evidence has since come to light to suggest otherwise.

Shades of the Lewis Hamiton scandal when he lied to steward about a “pass under yellow” by Jarno Trulli in Australia.

The Alonso/Piquet/Renault race-fixing angle may explain a few things…

Piquet was recently fired by Renault, triggering a poisonous verbal battle between Piquet and Renault F1 managing director Flavio Briatore.

Piquet accused Flavio of being his ‘executioner’ and a man ‘with no friends’ who ‘thinks only about money’ and ‘doesn’t understand “shit” about F1′ .

Briatore responded by saying when a driver fails to score results, he comes up with every excuse in the book, “The fault is the weather, a spectator’s sunglasses, a spin on the straight, this and that…”

Renault was recently fined 50 thousand dollars for allowing a wheel to come off their car in Hungary, so this has been a rocky road for a team that used to be at the top of the Formula One mountain.

So there’s the latest flow of political sewage from our stinky friends in Formula One.

With 5 races to go in the current season, do we now put all points totals and championships on hold until they put on the rubber gloves and paw through the process and finish off 2008?

We have enjoyed Rubens Barrichello and Force India’s move forward, and an honest to goodness points fight with Jenson Button hanging on…

And here they come with something else to distract us from the on-track sport…

And oh yes, we still have the Canadian Grand Prix return to figure out…

So typically, so sad.

Until next time..

ET

Montreal officials are close to a deal to get the Canadian Grand Prix back on the calendar next year, the city’s Mayor said on Thursday.

Gerald Tremblay told a press conference in Montreal that only a few final hurdles were needed to secure a slot for the 2010 race.

“There are still certain commitments which have been made that have to be refined,” he was quoted as saying by the Canadian Press agency. “Right now, we’re trying to finalize this agreement in the best interests of Montreal.”

No date had been set for the event, but it is likely it would keep the traditional June slot that it had held until it fell off the calendar this year.

“We want Montreal to regain its status as one of the largest Grand Prix (races) in the world,” Tremblay stated.

The deal to put the race back on had been helped by support from the Quebec and Ottawa governments, who would share the costs – or any profit – with Montreal.

The absence of the Canadian GP on the calendar this year meant that it was the first time in F1′s world championship history that there had not been a race in North America.

Last time we checked, what Bernie wanted and what Montreal could afford was millions of dollars apart.

Give us the price, give us a date and we’ll start mapping out our plans for the return of the Canadian Grand Prix…

Until we have those numbers…. don’t call us, we’ll call you!

ET