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Before the Mexico GP the FIA has decided: Renault drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hülkenberg are excluded from the Japan GP. Jacques Villeneuve gets the whole case going.

Renault has lost positions 6 (Daniel Ricciardo) and 10 (Nico Hulkenberg) in the Grand Prix of Japan, because the rule keepers of the FIA have disqualified the cars.

The FIA specialists considered it proven that the French factory racing cars had been on the road in Japan with an unauthorized driving aid. So they had no choice: exclusion.

Jacques Villeneuve, known for his clear words, gets the case going.

“What I think is wrong is how the punishment was handled. The system has been around for a long time. So if a car is always considered legal, it shouldn’t be considered illegal later on. Either it’s legal or it’s not legal, end of story,” said the Canadian at the press meeting.

Team manager Cyril Abiteboul had admitted that Renault had been using the system since 2018. “Normally, the FIA would have been asked to issue a technical directive or discuss it directly with us, not in a race, not by the sports commissioners,” the Frenchman raved towards Racing Point.

The Renault opponent had set the ball rolling. The racing team from Silverstone had submitted a twelve-page protest in Japan.

Villeneuve also criticized the way Racing Point dealt with the protest.

“All the teams knew that the system had existed for a long time. So the way Racing Point looked for points at Suzuka was cheap,” the Canadian said.

He believes, “I think they’ll get that back someday because there are some ways that teams shouldn’t deal with each other.”