Flavio Overturns Lifetime Ban..In F1

[qblockpete]

but agrees to stay away for 3 years.

Just in case anyone is interested.

Plus he's plans his son Falco to have trials for Neil Warnock in the summer

[fazer vic]

wish he would stay away from loftus rd for 3 years,

[alibabes]

what has rock me amadeus got to do with it

[Lord Charles]

'kinell the lad must be growing fast, he was only born a month ago!

[hermitage10]

hahaha his son is havin a trial. cant see him being signed, wud look sooo bad in my view!

[W6hoops]

Falco? Gotta get him in just for the name

[paulmason]

but agrees to stay away for 3 years.

Just in case anyone is interested.

Plus he's plans his son Falco to have trials for Neil Warnock in the summer

If he overturned the ban, why would he agree to stay away for three years ?

[paulmason]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mikenorrish/100007134/flavio-briatores-return-will-be-a-dark-day-for-f1/

Talk about a fudge. The deal struck on Monday between the FIA, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds to bring to an end the lawsuits, claims and counter-claims over ‘Crash-gate’ may save us all from months, perhaps years, of grubby bickering, backstabbing and legal waffle – and thereby benefit the reputation of motorsport long-term – but it is a most unsatisfactory conclusion to one of F1’s most unedifying spectacles.

I mean, who in the end was punished – really punished – for the “worst act of cheating in the history of sport” as it was famously described on the back page of one prominent British newspaper?

Flavio Briatore? The perma-tanned Italian, who both the FIA and Renault’s independent investigators judged was responsible for ordering Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash his car deliberately at Singapore in 2008, is free to return to F1 from 2013 having been allowed to take what, on the surface at least, appears to be a self-imposed ‘sabbatical’ from the sport.

Pat Symonds? Renault’s former director of engineering will serve three and a bit years of the five-year ban he was given despite a letter to the FIA last autumn acknowledging his role in the affair (even if he claimed that it was Piquet Jnr’s idea to crash his car on purpose).

The FIA? They failed to make any charges stick for one of the most heinous and dangerous acts of cheating ever, despite assuring us repeatedly that Briatore could be tried in a civil court let alone a sporting one such was his crime.

New president Jean Todt has clearly decided he is not going to back a losing horse. He can point to the fact that it was his predecessor, Max Mosley, who botched the job and has promised a review of the disciplinary processes of the World Motor Sport Council.
Renault? Handed a two-year suspended ban at the time. Piquet Jnr? Handed immunity at the time. Now racing across the pond in NASCAR. The whole thing stinks to high heaven.

Briatore, who turned 60 on Monday, celebrated by claiming the moral high ground, telling us that it was he who “informed the FIA” of his intention to take a break, rather than the other way around. Incredibly the FIA, in their statement, sort of allowed him that concession, saying he and Symonds had “abstained” from taking on any operational roles in F1 until 2013.

And although they repeated their assertion that the pair were guilty of the crime with which they were charged, they were forced to add (between gritted teeth, no doubt) that in Briatore’s case it was only in his capacity as Team Principal of Renault.

Presumably it was the only way they could get Briatore’s lawyers to sign off on the agreement, which will see neither side attempt to file any further charges or comment further on the issue.

The FIA have presumably just accepted they no longer have a strong enough case (or even the inclination, now that Mosley has gone) to bring Briatore down, given the fact that the WMSC’s judgement was
deemed to have been “irregular” by the Paris court which overturned the bans back in January.

Motorsport’s governing body attempted to save a modicum of face by informing us that both Briatore and Symonds had “apologised” to them for their roles in the scandal. Apologised? These two supposedly orchestrated the most heinous crime in the history of F1. Max Mosley keeps telling us they could still face criminal charges if they ever dare to return to Singapore. Either they are guilty, in which case they should be punished properly. Or they are not, in which case they should be free to return to F1 at once.

This out-of-court settlement for the purposes of expediency leaves a sour taste in the mouth. We still don’t know what really happened in Singapore 2008. And now we never will.

[Dannyboy]

Agree