McLaren racing cars: Speed merchants

A Formula 1 team spreads its wingsA SLIPPERY rain-soaked circuit in Shanghai did Lewis Hamilton no favours in the third Formula 1 (F1) race this season. The young British world champion, who came sixth in the Chinese Grand Prix on April 19th, nonetheless praised the efforts of his McLaren team to boost the performance of his car back at their base in Woking. Workshops elsewhere in Britain were busy too: first and second places in Shanghai went to Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing, headquartered in Milton Keynes. Jenson Button, of Brackley-based Brawn, came third. Six of the ten leading F1 teams are based in Britain.Motor racing is a big British success story. From a motley collection of enthusiastic racers and specialist designers, a cottage industry has arisen that is unrivalled around the globe. Some 4,500 firms are now involved in racing, sports-car engineering and related functions such as event management. Their annual turnover is reckoned to be in the region of GBP6 billion. ...

Renault poised to pull out of F1

• Renault will not dispute race-fixing allegations at hearing• Bernie Ecclestone 'sorry and surprised' by friend's exit Renault could be poised to withdraw from Formula One at the end of this season after effectively admitting its guilt in a race-fixing scam and confirming the departure of the two senior figures at the centre of the allegations, including the managing director, Flavio Briatore.The team said it would not contest accusations that its management encouraged Nelson Piquet Jr to crash deliberately in last year's Singapore grand prix. Having last Friday launched legal action against its former driver, the U-turn came as a surprise even in a Formula One season that is losing its power to shock. Piquet Jr was alleged to have been ordered to crash on a specific lap in order to help his team leader, Fernando Alonso, win, thanks to the appearance of the safety car.Senior executives at Renault Group had said they would not rush to any hasty conclusions about the team's future, but its presence in next year's championship has already been called into question by the departure of its main sponsor, ING, and the likely departure of its main driver, Alonso, for Ferrari.Briatore, the Renault team's managing director and a colourful figure in the sport for more than two decades, and Pat Symonds, the executive director of engineering, left their posts with immediate effect ahead of next Monday's meeting of the FIA's world motor sport council."The Renault team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore grand prix," it said in a statement.  "It also wishes to state that its managing director Flavio Briatore and its executive director of engineering Pat Symonds have left the team."Monday's extraordinary meeting will proceed in Paris as planned to decide what penalty should be imposed on the French car maker for its part in the latest of a seemingly endless string of scandals which have embroiled the sport for the past decade or more.Leaked documents detailing interviews with Symonds and Briatore and transcripts of the team's radio communications at the Singapore race appeared to indicate that, at the very least, there is a strong case for Renault to answer.The FIA offered Piquet Jr immunity in return for outlining his allegations. Symonds is also believed to have been offered immunity, but it now appears unlikely he will take up the offer.The Formula One rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone, said he could not comment on the likely decision of the council, on which he sits alongside the FIA president, Max Mosley, and 24 others, but said he "felt sorry" for his close friend Briatore."Obviously, I'm surprised at what has happened, and I'm taken by surprise that they've decided to walk away," he said.Whether Briatore jumped or was pushed is neither here nor there in the ultimate analysis; Renault concluded that both had to go if the team was to have a hope of drawing the sting from any penalty the FIA might have in mind – which could include their exclusion from the title race a few days before the first anniversary of the controversial event.This has been a fast-moving saga, fuelled by the embittered Piquet who was dropped from the team last month, through to the symbolic sacrifice of Renault's leading player, Briatore.The sequence of events mirrors the way in which the McLaren chairman, Ron Dennis, and his lieutenant, Dave Ryan, were sidelined following the so-called "Liargate" controversy involving Lewis Hamilton at this year's race in Melbourne. Both Ryan and Symonds were caught in the crossfire and were not the main targets of the FIA's ire.Formula One insiders are split on Renault's likely intentions. Some argue that the decision to part company with Briatore and Symonds suggests the team was preparing a case that would appeal for clemency by the FIA and enable it to honour an earlier commitment to remain competing in the championship until at least 2012.Others are convinced that the scandal will merely have hardened Renault's intention to pull out, but that Briatore and Symonds had to go in order to limit the damage to the team's reputation.Formula OneRenaultFlavio BriatoreMotor sportOwen GibsonAlan Henryguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Dennis confident McLaren will bounce back

Warns Hamilton to take the rough with the smooth Lewis Hamilton may not be able to win this year, but he will be able to add to his championship tally with McLaren in the future...  

Rumour - McLaren to buy BMW's F1 engine division

Oct.3 (GMM) The hottest rumour at the Suzuka circuit on Saturday is that McLaren is contemplating splitting completely with Mercedes at the end of the season.

Formula One boss Ron Dennis tells tribunal that he is not a racist

The head of Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One team today described allegations that he was racist as “lies that have damaged my reputation”.

Diffuser row poses threat to unity of Fota

On the face of it, the row over the diffuser at the back of Jenson Button's car is about a technicality - a box-shaped carbon-fibre structure at the rear of the Brawn GP vehicle that channels air out of the back of the machine. Seven teams on the Formula One grid say that Brawn GP, along with Williams and Toyota, have abused the rules, that the diffusers are too big and give those drivers more grip and thus more speed.