Former Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore has said he left the team in order to save it, ahead of the decisive FIA meeting to face allegations of race-fixing.
The Italian, together with director of engineering Pat Symonds, left the team on Wednesday.
The French outfit said in a statement it would not dispute the allegations of fixing the result of last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
Briatore said he felt it was his duty to quit Renault, hoping the FIA will take a more lenient view.
"I was just trying to save the team. It's my duty. That's the reason I've finished," Briatore was quoted as saying by British newspapers.
Briatore and Symonds could potentially be extradited to Singapore to face criminal charges in connection with the race-fixing claims.
The Times newspaper also says there are legal challenges open to Ferrari and its driver, Felipe Massa, who missed out on last year's world drivers' crown by a single point, and to Renault itself, which may want to sue its former employees for allegedly bringing the company's name into disrepute.
However, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone insisted the scandal wouldn't damage the sport.
"It is a pity that Flavio has ended his Formula One career in this way," Ecclestone told the Daily Mirror. "You can't defend him at all. What he did was completely unnecessary. It's a pity that it has happened.
"He told me recently that he didn't want to finish up like me, playing with racing cars at my age. So at least he's been saved that embarrassment.
"It [the sport] has recovered from so many things when people have said it was finished and it will recover from this. It was supposed to be finished when Ayrton Senna died. It was supposed to be finished when Michael Schumacher retired.
"People say it's been a torrid year, but it always is in F1. There's always something going on. It's never peaceful."
Twitter - follow autocar.co.ukSee all the latest Renault reviews, news and video
