The beleaguered Renault Formula One team have announced the promotion of technical director Bob Bell to become the new team principal of the French squad until the end of the current season, after the departure of Crazy Flav.
Bell takes charge after the team conducted a temporary game of musical chairs behind the scenes in order to compensate for the personnel they lost during the Fixgate mess.
Both former team principal Flavio Briatore and former engineering chief Pat Symonds received bans from motorsport on Monday after they were both found to be involved with the race-fixing conspiracy at the Singapore GP last season.
Bell takes on the role as team principal, and will also fulfil the role of chief technical officer for the team. Whether he gets two salaries or not remains unclear.
The reshuffle also sees major household name Jean-François Caubet move from his current position of director of marketing and communications to become the new managing director.
A Renault statement confirming the whole thrilling restructure said that "They will both report to Bernard Rey, President of the Renault F1 Team.
"Bob Bell will attend all the remaining races of the season and will be the team's spokesperson on all sporting and technical matters."
The statement also reiterated the Renault party line from the WMSC hearing on Monday, namely one of doe-eyed contrition, saying: "The Renault F1 Team is now ready to concentrate on the future and wishes to stress that no further comments or statements will be issued relating to the events of Singapore 2008."
Bell joined the team in 1997, back in the Benetton days before Renault completed their slow, but successful takeover. He spent a brief time with the Jordan team but returned in 2002 as the team's technical director, helping in some way to secure back-to-back drivers crowns for the team in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso.
The announcement of Bell as temporary team boss will muffle the rumours linking Alain Prost with a return to team management with his former team, though given that Bell's posting is a temporary one, those rumours will likely grow again over the winter.
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