Flavio Briatore Banned for Life, Renault Disqualified Two Years (Suspended)

[cornbeef]

So Renault got a suspended ban until 2012, I'm reading that they are permantly banned after that and will be banned sooner if they do something else. Anyway they're most likely gone, I'll still be surprized if they stay in F1 for as long as they are there, this will still linger. The manufacturors are dropping like flies, would have made for an interesting breakaway series.....

[...m...]

...i've love to see prodrive/aston martin on the grid alongside the new lotus team - plenty of folks lined up to take renault's place...

[tvacc]

I think is it nice that the people involved are getting their just desserts...but this has all happaned before.

Remember Senna and Prost taking each other out in Japan i think...and Mansell and Hill I think somewhere else..

This has been going on for a long time. Planned accidents have been a part of team and driver strategy for as long as there has been racing.

[...m...]

Originally Posted by tvacc

This has been going on for a long time. Planned accidents have been a part of team and driver strategy for as long as there has been racing.

...perhaps i'm an idealist, but one would hope that applying the death penalty swiftly and mercilessly might prove a strong disincentive to such actions, and maybe formula one could swing back toward being a gentleman's sport...

[tvacc]

I had the pleasure of meeting Innes Ireland...first Team Lotus F1 Winner and one of the last gentlemen drivers.

We spoke about the fact that F1 had lost the gentleman's touch...something that he found to be most unfortunate.

We spent a whole night talking about stuff like this and all of his stories. Great guy and I think the best speaker we ever had at a Lotus Owners Gathering...back in 1987.

[fitfan]

personally,

i think the whole thing was blown up so that max could flex some muscle... consider it a PR event

and the mclaren ferrari thing? the FIA should have never been involved in that - that was between 2 intelectual property holders...

this maybe sporting, hence the realm of the FIA. in the end - the punsihment is built to suit the desires and personal goals of the FIA, not the crime.

i think what the FIA has done is more rotten than anything Flavio / renault did. manipulated a situation to get leverage to do something they otherwise couldn't find a means to accomplish.

i can imagine how that conversation with with p. jr and the FIA went down. i bet there we salivating and rubbing their hands in anticipation!

[Brian 111]

Originally Posted by fitfan

i think what the FIA has done is more rotten than anything Flavio / renault did. manipulated a situation to get leverage to do something they otherwise couldn't find a means to accomplish.

i can imagine how that conversation with with p. jr and the FIA went down. i bet there we salivating and rubbing their hands in anticipation!

If I were young Piquet, I'd hire someone to start my car for me from now on.

Originally Posted by dickedup

Flavio was a pretty talented fellow between his F1 work and knocking Heidi Klum up.

That second item must be inspirational to lard-asses the world over. Flav might need some time off, now that his wife is pregnant. They look so happy...

[mikester]

It's a shame, all of it.

I can't help but feel that Piquet Jr. got off too lightly, even though I realize he's all but finished as a race car driver. Even though it definitely appears that Briatore is guilty as charged, what he had said in his defence is true: you can ask someone to rob a bank, but it is up to the person whether or not they do it. So, let's accept that Flavio did ask - as a driver, it was Piquet's responsibility to refuse this stupid idea. Piquet seems to be a chip off the old block, in terms of character. But his dad had way more driving talent, of course...

[ML1media]

Originally Posted by Brian 111

That second item must be inspirational to lard-asses the world over. Flav might need some time off, now that his wife is pregnant. They look so happy...

....wait...WHICH one is PREGNANT???

jm

[teekster]

Originally Posted by ML1media

....wait...WHICH one is PREGNANT???

jm

[...m...]

...okay, i made up that last part...

---

Times Online
September 22, 2008 - Ben Smith

Flavio Briatore is reported to be considering legal action against the FIA and may set up a series to rival Formula One.

Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport said he was planning to sue the sport's governing body in the Paris courts to try to prove his innocence and win compensation for the damage to his image.

The multi-millionaire co-owner of Queens Park Rangers Football Club is facing an indefinite ban from FIA-sponsored motor sport after ordering Nelson Piquet Jr to crash deliberately during last year's Singapore Grand Prix. His suitability as an owner of QPR is also being assessed by the Football League as a result of the FIA's findings.

"I am distraught," the 59-year-old told the newspaper.

Briatore left Renault last week along with Pat Symonds, the former director of engineering, who was banned for five years yesterday. Renault did not contest the accusations and were given a suspended ban that will last until the end of the 2011 season.

The italian will no longer retain a role in the management of the GP2 Series, the Formula One feeder championship, and will not be able to continue managing racing drivers, among them four on the present Formula One grid - Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Heikki Kovalainen and Romain Grosjean.

Carlos Gracia, head of the Spanish motor sport federation and a member of the FIA's world motor sport council, said Briatore's life ban was "excessive" and said he expected the Italian to mount a compensation claim.

"Briatore's [penalty] seems to me excessive, there was no clear proof against him and he was not able to defend himself either," he said. "I wouldn't rule out him going to ordinary justice because he has been left without his means of earning a living."

"Personally, I insist that Briatore's penalty seems disproportionate, while I think that a big mistake has been made with Piquet, creating a dangerous precedent," he added.

"Max Mosley has labelled the scandal as a criminal act, so I don't understand how the executor can be reprieved. He is as responsible for the scandal as the rest, and if he's not ready to handle situations with pressure, then maybe he chose the wrong job."

Earlier in the season, Briatore considered setting up a rival series when the teams clashed with the FIA over the proposed budget cap.

[apk919]

Originally Posted by ...m...

...okay, i made up that last part...

---

Sometimes you really have to admire the sheer chutzpah of defense attorneys... especially when their client's situation requires complete abandonment of reason and reality.