Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Formula One seems to be stumbling from one controversy to another.
First it was the Indianapolis farce, then it was McLaren pilfering trade secrets from Ferrari, followed by the row over McLaren's Lewis Hamilton lying to the stewards. And now it is Renault involved in pre-meditated cheating.
Moreover, there was also the issue of budgetary caps which almost resulted in some of the teams, including Ferrari, pulling out of the series next season.
Even, off the track too, F1 has been badly hit by the shenanigans of FŽdŽration Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley.
The FIA has shown that it can deal severely with cheaters after slapping a $100 million fine on McLaren and excluding the team from the 2007 Constructors' Championship in the 'spygate' scandal.
In the 'liargate' case, Hamilton was disqualified from the Melbourne race and McLaren was handed a suspended three-race ban.
But the latest controversy over Renault's Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds ordering their F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr to crash during last year's Singapore Grand Prix so that his team mate Fernando Alonso could win the race, is surely the most damaging to date.
One writer has already called it the worst act of cheating in any sport. That is because it put the lives of many people in danger including the drivers, race officials and spectators.
Former Jordan and Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine has claimed that cheating has always gone on in the sport and that the current furore over Renault's alleged 'race-fixing' is simply the governing body 'going on a crusade'.
"When I was in various teams you would do anything to win. Back in the day it was normal," he told the BBC although few agreed with his opinion.
Irvine's former team boss Eddie Jordan said: "The ramifications with safety, safety of the marshals, safety of the driver ... you're asking someone to do something absolutely ridiculous. I ran a team for nearly 30 years and I can't comprehend that is even part of the agenda. I don't know how desperate they were."
So what is the FIA going to do in the latest case? That, we'll know in due course, but the fact is that the sport is gaining ill-repute which Formula One can well do without.
That both Briatore, the managing director, and Symonds, the director of engineering, have left; and Renault saying 'they will not dispute' Piquet Jr's allegations does not absolve them of complicity in fixing the race.
This was not the work of rogue employees but the top two figures in the team, something which represents a gross betrayal of their duty of care to Piquet who, fortunately, was not injured in the crash.
It's one thing to having a team caught using a rival team's confidential information. That's wrong and must be punished - but it doesn't put anyone's life at risk.
The FIA may have offered Piquet immunity from punishment but he cannot be immune from criticism. Renault's plan was below the belt but his willingness to go along with it in the hope of promoting his career was cowardly.
It raises all sorts of questions. Was anyone besides Briatore, Symonds and Piquet involved? Had any other team tried this sort of thing before? And, given the way in which he secured the 'victory', should Alonso now publicly refuse to take credit for it?
A two-times world champion has no need of tainted triumphs handed to him in such a corrupt fashion.
If Alonso was to hand back his trophy and say he wanted no part in this sorry episode it would go a long way to bringing back credibility to the sport of motor racing.
