The FIA is said to be launching an investigation into the Singapore Grand Prix from the 2008 season, after new light appeared to be shed on the reasons for one Renault car crashing and the other Renault car going on to win the race.
The first F1 night race from last season was won by Fernando Alonso, after he benefited from a safety car period caused by a crash for his then-team mate Nelson Piquet Jr, who triggered the yellow flags after hitting the wall shortly before the first round of pit stops.
At the time, a few mad people ranted that Renault had somehow told their useless driver to crash in order to allow their useful driver a run at a race victory, though Piquet had said at the time that his crash was simply down to him overdriving the car.
"It was my mistake," said Piquet at the time, "We tried two extreme strategies with Fernando quite short and me quite long in the hope of getting a safety car. If I hadn't crashed I would have been lucky with the safety car later in the race because I was very happy.
"We're always scraping the walls, and once you've touched the wall a little too much and lose control that's it."
However, now it seems that some new evidence has been uncovered, that apparently casts the mad conspiracy theory into a plausible light, and has convinced the FIA to investigate. Although, given that the FIA stewards investigated the opening lap crashes in the Belgian GP, this may just be more evidence that they'll investigate anything.
The new evidence seems to have conveniently coincided with Piquet Jr leaving the team in acrimonious circumstances, though there is no evidence that Piquet Jr himself has leaked the new information.
Though few details about the nature of the inquiry were forthcoming, and FIA statement confirmed that: "The FIA can confirm that an investigation is underway regarding alleged events at a previous world championship race."
Should any race-changing duplicity be proven, the World Motor Sports Council may well be brought in to deal with a hearing into the matter.
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