Benetton and its albatross

Why Benetton? That’s the question most ask when I mentioned the book I’ve written. I started to wonder myself at times. This is a team about which there is plenty of opinion, arguably prejudice and a degree of resentment – even now.

The short answer is that while there have been previous books on Benetton’s F1 adventure few have told the bigger-picture story of where it came from, why and how. The more I got into the subject, the more it drew me in.

The second question people ask is: are you going to reveal how they cheated in 1994? That’s the albatross Team Enstone can never throw from its neck.

There’s a short answer: no, I cannot, in part because there’s no hard evidence it actually was ‘cheating’ – only insinuation and a degree of presumption. Benetton was never formally charged with the illegal use of traction or launch control. All I could do was present what we know, where the suspicions came from and what those  I talked to on the inside of the Benetton story said back.

I was sat in Pat Symonds’ kitchen  when I asked him the killer question. He knew I had to ask, but he also couldn’t hide his exasperation. “Categorically, there was nothing wrong with the control systems on that car,” he replied. “It was a super car. What people didn’t realise until much later was that at Benetton and later at Renault we designed our cars with further rearward weight distribution than most. It was good off the line and on traction. But the doubt is always there.” He knows it always will be.