The race-fix case of Briatore and Symonds versus the FIA

[Ciro Pabón]

Thanks, Rob, my mistake. WB, sure, as Madonna said: everybody is entitled to my opinion.

I don't like Briatore, I don't like Mosley. Let them fight and embarrass each other, as long as they don't embarrass Formula One (oops, both of them did that already).

Both behaved in such a stupid way that their legacy, hopefully, would be that: a world famous sport directive exposed with his pants down, a world famous fashion directive exposed cheating. Let learn new ways to make mistakes, but I think Todt was chosen because he seems unable to make the same mistakes.

Who is right? I don't know. Saward, wisely, tiptoes around the point. I did the same.

Anyway, I'm glad both are out. I'm saving an 18 years old Chivas bottle for the day Ecclestone leaves F1. You're all invited, btw.

[WhiteBlue]

Chivas for celebration? I would prefer a nice Glenmorangie. It is as close to perfection as Highland malts get.

[xpensive]

Ooh, misread you there, I thought we were talking about MrM!

For as long as I've been watching F1 (not a terribly long time, relatively) MrE has reminded me of Mr. Magoo. Perhaps evil wanes with age and senility?

Well, if "Q" reminds us of MrM, perhaps "Quark", the bar-keep in DS9, is a deadringer for MrE?

[WhiteBlue]

Briatore won in court. I must say I'm surprised by this. More to follow.

[Fil]

Briatore won in court. I must say I'm surprised by this. More to follow.

Can't say i am, for what seemed to be obvious reasons from day 1.
The FIA is potentially going to look very silly for dragging two individuals into their case against a competing team.
Fascinated to hear what the compensation will be.

I wonder whether he & Symmonds can claim for unfair dismissal by Renault now too..?

[WhiteBlue]

SportsPro says the compensation is believed to be €15,000 which is practically nothing.

One has to know details but it looks like the life ban was criticised by the court as irregular. I have suspected that it could be an issue of the human rights.

The FIA is supposed to appeal against the court's ruling.

[xpensive]

Briatore won in court. I must say I'm surprised by this.

Why, you said from the very beginning that Briatore's punishment was out of proportion...didn't you?

[vyselegend]

I feel it's a good thing to have this ban cancelled. It was way too harsh and sounded too much like the result of a personal vendetta. Only my opinion of course. I missed Briatore and I'm sure he will come back strongly.

Now let's wait for Symond's come back too!

[Giblet]

People have been put in jail for less.

Endangering the lives of his driver, fans, and marshalls for personal gain.

I know the chance was low, and Piquet is extremely good at crashing, but F him. You give a kid nice toys and he breaks them, you take away the toys.

[tarzoon]

I commented some time before that no matter how safe the cars are nowadays and how high the probability of PJr of crashing independently of fixing or not, it's still playing with a life for the sake of a few million euros. He was wrong, but it's the first time I see a life ban for such a thing. In other sports the risk is there and orders are there (Don King, anyone) and there are no life bans.

Anyway, the kinky spanker played with fire (aka Flavio) and that's a mistake... a big, blunt mistake! FIA was lucky though. 15k is not a lot.

[bjpower]

Briatore won in court. I must say I'm surprised by this.

Why, you said from the very beginning that Briatore's punishment was out of proportion...didn't you?

he told an employee to crash his car.
if the boss of DHL went out and told a truck driver to crash his truck he would be in prison and rightly so.

If the head of the company tells you to brake the rules it is generally implied your job is on the line.

what he did was not just against F1 rules but against laws as well.

[tarzoon]

if the boss of DHL went out and told a truck driver to crash his truck he would be in prison and rightly so.

I don't know about crashing, but I'm quite sure they drive hours on end without any pause or sleep. The point is there anyway

[ben_watkins]

So will we see him in F1 next season in some way do you think?

[Agerasia]

His reputation though is still in tatters. Even though he won who in their right mind would employ him.

[mep]

Nice to hear that the live long F1 ban i discarded.
I hope we will see Briatore this year in F1 again.