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Hill: 'Renault F1 got away lightly'
22 September 2009
Former F1 world champion Damon Hill has hit out at the FIA for 'letting off' Renault in the race-fix scandal - but says he expected the punishment to be lenient.
"I'm not surprised they've let Renault off," Hill, who drove a Renault-powered Williams F1 car to the world title in 1996, told the Times newspaper. "It's a crying shame for the sport.
"You have to put this in the context of inconsistencies in the way in which the FIA has treated breaches of the regulations over the years and, knowing what we know, we cannot dissociate this from the power play going on behind the scenes for control of Formula One.
"Formula One has to ask itself, is it just a very expensive form of entertainment or a proper sport? There is a whole book on what's wrong with Formula One. It's called Bernie's Game and the history of this episode is typical."
However, FIA president Max Mosley has insisted the penalty is fair, claiming it was the harshest the FIA can impose.
"I think it's the right decision," Mosley 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.
"The penalty for Renault is disqualification but suspended for two years, so what that means is that provided they don't do something silly in the next two years, they don't have any problems.
"However, because Renault have demonstrated that they had absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place it would be wrong in the circumstances to impose an immediate penalty."
Former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, however, received the hardest hit after he was banned from F1 for life.
Mosley believes the FIA was left with no other choice.
"It's sad to see a career end like that, but what else could we do?" said Mosley.
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