Briatore Quits Renault

[Jamie]

Jamie, Simple truth is we don't know.

But, if you have an opinion of someone before any of this, in your eyes he is gulity before proven innocence.

its called "stabing the guy in the back", because it sort of compliments your prinicpials on the man.

As, I said I'm actually not a great fan of him personally, but if you are unhappy with the job he is doing at QPR, it will have a bearing on feelings regarding this affair.

everyone is innocent until proven guilty...

unfortunately Flav and Symonds leaving Renault and them not disputing the claims makes them by default guilty as the FIA meeting on monday will confirm....

as for my feelings on Flav at QPR, my personal belief is that he has invested about as much as he can afford to in the club, Bernie and Mittal want nothing to do with it and if someone made him and offer he'd snap their hands off to sell up....

sadly i think Flav has realized now that you cannot make money from football, but is far too commited financially to walk away and cut his losses...

where that leaves the club is a point of conjecture

[paulmason]

Flavio Briatore: playboy, showman...cheat?

Kevin Eason, Sports News Correspondent

Playboy, mentor, showman, financial wizard … and now cheat? Flavio Briatore fits almost every label applied to his burly physique as he exits the job that elevated his image above the sport he conquered.

His achievement of winning four world championships with two different drivers and, effectively, two different teams was his shining achievement until today when the statisticians started reaching for the record books and wondering which pages they should start ripping out first.

Briatore was always a man who liked to win and his intolerance of failure or weak characters who were unable to stand up to his standards - and his temper - was legendary. Nelson Piquet Jnr was not the only driver to suffer at Briatore’s hands; Jenson Button, leading the world championship this season at Brawn GP, was given a torrid time in two years under Briatore’s management at Benetton, the predecessor to the Renault team.

Born in 1950 in Verzuolo, Italy, to schoolteacher parents, Briatore was not especially bright at school and left to become a ski instructor. But his entrepreneurial spirit was soon showing as he opened a restaurant. He then became an assistant to Attilio Dutto, a businessman, whose life was ended by a car bomb.

Later he worked at the Milan Stock Exchange, where he met Luciano Benetton, head of the family clothing empire, and proceeded to open stores for the company around the USA. It was an astonishing success that made Briatore wealthy and opened the way for a new career, heading the then moribund Benetton Formula One team.

Even though he didn’t know a suspension arm from a rear spring, Briatore’s touch was magical. He spotted Michael Schumacher in 1991 and bought him from Eddie Jordan’s fledgling team. Schumacher went on to win two world championships with Briatore in 1994 and 1995. Even during the triumphant second championship, though, there were suspicions about the legality of Schumacher’s car, a cloud that has never cleared.

Briatore's restless spirit led him to give up Formula One, instead opening the exclusive Billionaire nightclub in Sardinia and starting a clothing line under the same brand while at the same time squiring a number of attractive ladies, including supermodel Naomi Campbell.

But he could not help but return to the Renault team that had acquired Benetton’s ownership when they called. He had Button in the team but unceremoniously dumped the Briton for Fernando Alonso, a protégé he himself managed. Although it was hard on Button, Alonso was an inspired choice and went on to win world championships in 2005 and 2006.

Briatore - said to be worth £110 million - was still looking for pastures new and had acquired the Queen’s Park Rangers football team along with Bernie Ecclestone, his friend and head of Formula One‘s commercial operation. Now footballers have had to get used to Briatore’s irascible and impatient nature, too, with a succession of managers going through the revolving door at Loftus Road.

One thing is for sure today, though: QPR's players should get ready for a fresh onslaught, for Briatore will now be able to devote all his time to football.