Renault today appeared before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) to face charges relating to the “crash-gate” affair. After the hearing in Paris, which lasted just 90 minutes, the WMSC handed down a rapid verdict.

Renault received a permanent disqualification from the sport, but this is suspended until the end of 2011. Former team boss Flavio Briatore has been banned from FIA-sanctioned events for an unlimited period and Ex-engineering director Pat Symonds has also been excluded for five years.

Managing director Flavio Briatore and executive director of engineering Pat Symonds were both implicated ahead of today’s hearing and had already left the team as the French car giant said they would not contest the charges. Also, the FIA agreed not to pursue action against Piquet in return for his role in uncovering the details of the scandal.

“Furthermore, (the FIA) does not intend to renew any Superlicence granted to any driver who is associated (through a management contract or otherwise) with Mr. Briatore, or any entity or individual associated with Mr. Briatore. In determining that such instructions should be applicable for an unlimited period, the World Motor Sport Council has had regard not only to the severity of the breach in which Mr. Briatore was complicit but also to his actions in continuing to deny his participation in the breach despite all the evidence.”

Briatore’s firm, FFBB, currently manages Heikki Kovalainen and Mark Webber as well as Renault Development Drivers such as Romain Grosjean and Lucas di Grassi.

While Briatore has been banned from the sport indefinitely with Symonds handed a five year ban, Fernando Alonso “was not in any way involved in Renault F1’s breach of the regulations,” and Nelson Piquet Jr. was immune from sanctions after giving evidence to the FIA.

A transcript of the conversations between Renault team bosses, engineers and driver Nelson Piquet Jr. during last year’s Singapore Grand Prix has been published, adding to the speculation over claims that Piquet was told to crash deliberately in order to aid the chances of his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race.

Yesterday, Renault’s director of engineering, Pat Symonds, was granted immunity in the FIA’s investigation into the incident if he agrees to provide details of the alleged plan.

Now the Times newspaper has published details of the interactions between Symonds, two Renault engineers and crucially, Flavio Briatore, the team principal, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing on behalf of the driver and the team. In the radio communication, Briatore swears repeatedly and says that Piquet is “not a driver” following the now notorious crash, before later asking: “Is Nelson OK?”

“I can tell you now we are not three-stopping,” Symonds is heard to say on the transcript made by the FIA, the sport’s world governing body.

Later Symonds says to an engineer: “Don’t worry about fuel because I’m going to get him (Alonso) out of this traffic earlier than that.”

Piquet says: “What lap are we in, what lap are we in?”

A Renault engineer then reports: “He just asked: ‘What lap are we in?’”

Symonds replies: “Yeah, tell him that he’s about to complete lap eight.”

Symonds insists Piquet is then told something he should know from his pit board, which is shown to him at the end of every lap. “No, just tell him, he is about, he’s just completing, he’s about to complete lap eight.”

Symonds then says: “Right, I’m going to…I think we’re going to stop him just before we catch him (a reference to the Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima, who was ahead of Alonso) and get him out of it, the reason being we’ve still got this worry on the fuel pump. It’s only a couple of laps short. We’re going to be stopping him early and we’re going to go to lap 40.”

An unnamed engineer asks a few minutes later: “Pat, do you still not think that this is a bit too early? We only did six tenths that lap.”

Symonds replies: “No, no it’s going to be all right.”

“OK, OK, understood,” the engineer says.

Renault were summoned by governing body, the FIA, after Nelson Piquet Jr. claimed he had been directly asked to crash to help team-mate Fernando Alonso’s race. Renault have been called to answer charges that they “conspired with Nelson Piquet Jr to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix with the aim of causing the deployment of the safety car to the advantage of its other driver, Fernando Alonso”.

Ahead of Monday’s Extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, the team announced today that both Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have left the team.  ”The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix,” a statement reads.  ”It also wishes to state that its managing director, Flavio Briatore and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team. Before attending the hearing before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 21 September 2009, the team will not make any further comment.”

The hearing will attempt to attribute responsibility for the Singapore “crash-gate” despite the news that Briatore and Symonds have left Renault. Should the team be found guilty of the allegations, the range of sanctions available to the FIA range from a fine, to permanent exclusion from the world championship.

At the time, Piquet attributed the crash to a simple error, but after being dropped by the team after July’s Hungary GP the race-fixing allegations emerged. He has since testified to the FIA that he was instructed by Briatore and Symonds when and where to crash.

Team US F1 has become the first of the new outfits to formally apply to join the Formula One Teams’ Association.

FOTA currently consists of eight of the current teams, with Williams and Force India having been suspended from the organization following their decision to lodge entries to the 2010 championship amid the summer threats of a breakaway series.

F1’s three new teams, US F1, Campos Grand Prix and Manor Grand Prix, have now all been told that they are welcome to join FOTA and have been informed about the procedures by which they can become members.

US F1 is the first outfit to formally accept the invitation and request membership, with its application due to be examined by FOTA’s executive committee at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Discussions between FOTA and Williams and Force India are also ongoing about their future positions. Force India COO Simon Roberts said after the Belgian Grand Prix that he would discuss the matter with team owner Vijay Mallya soon.

“I think we’ve been invited back in,” he told Autosport. “I talked to Vijay earlier. We have participated whenever we can. We complied with all of the shutdown restrictions and we’re quite happy with that.

“To be honest, we’ve been really busy. Before the shutdown it was fine because we knew what was happening, but we’ve been struggling to pick it back up. Now we’ve had this result we can relax a bit, discuss it with Vijay and take up that offer.”

Williams’ position appears to be slightly different, with the team admitting that it was not a given that it would rejoin FOTA.

Team boss Frank Williams speaking about his outfit’s relationship with FOTA: “It is a little arms’ length but it is not hostile.”

“We had a difficulty because we chose to sign (our 2010 entry) early, and in truth, we signed the Concorde Agreement early. That is because most of our sponsors’ condition is that we are a member of the official FIA F1 world championship and the promoters’ Concorde Agreement.”