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

[xpensive]

I have always been convinced that the entire thing was the idea of the Piquets themselves to impress Renault.

[WhiteBlue]

Italian Sky Sport 24 quoted:

I was thrown out as though a criminal. I will never come back to Formula 1 as team manager, but perhaps after 2012 in another role.

I think he could take up a role in the promotion of Formula 1.

This sounds interesting. 2012 will see the expiring of the current Concord agreement and the teams have an opportunity to get rid of Ecclestone by doing their own series. They cannot get rid of the FiA though. The federation would still be needed to license tracks and drivers and for safety. It has a world wide monopoly on that. But the rules could be made by the teams.

I think that not many team principals will follow Bernie's ideas. The pimp should better be gone for good.

[donskar]

Bernie supporting Flavio's return to F1: What a superb example of self-revelation. Two pimps discussing how to divide up street corners for their respective whores.

[WhiteBlue]

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pr ... bunal.aspx?

The "pimp" will come back!

Todt settles out of court. Symmonds and Briatore accept responsibility for race fixing and the FiA excludes them only until the end of 2012.

It looks like Briatore is still Bernie's preferred successor and he may involve him in FOM. Another alternative could be a come back as FOTA marketing head.

This is suitably pragmatic but one must ask the question as to whether the punishment is sufficient for the offences committed. It is highly unlikely that either Briatore or Symonds will find it easy to get employment in F1, but the fact that the possibility exists is something worthy of discussion. Whatever the case their careers will be forever marked by what happened. The settlement may end up costing Briatore money as he is being sued by the Piquets, who claim that he libelled them.

One hopes that the new FIA procedures will allow for life bans for such activities.

[mcdenife]

Muahahahahaha. I dont know what kinda picture mr saward is trying to paint here but he is either someones mouth piece, naive, blind or read something completely difference. It seems he missed this:

Each of them recognising his share of responsibility for the deliberate crash involving the driver Nelson Piquet Junior at the 2008 Grand Prix of Singapore, as "Team Principal" of Renault F1 where Mr Flavio Briatore is concerned,

That communique in effect exonorates Briatore of race fixing. A face saving excercise for the FIA.

[WhiteBlue]

That communique in effect exonorates Briatore of race fixing. A face saving excercise for the FIA.

It probably takes Timbuktu logic to come to such an outlandish conclusion. The perpetrators have accepted punishment and apologized for their role in the race fixing. Some will always try to put their head in the sand.

The libel case of Piquet vs Briatore will continue and that will probably give some more clues of what really went on.

[Dukeage]

I'm not sure who would be worse in charge of the commercial aspects - Bernie or Flav. I feel sure that the teams would probably rather have Bernie running it as opposed to Flavio, who is still a race fixer. I can understand the FIA settling with Pat Symonds, but certainly not Briatore.

[mcdenife]

It probably takes Timbuktu logic to come to such an outlandish conclusion. The perpetrators have accepted punishment and apologized for their role in the race fixing. Some will always try to put their head in the sand.

What, you mean just as fairness and justice are outlandish concepts in WhiteBlue Country? Read it again that is Briatore and Symmonds giving the FIA a way out of this mess. ...

[WhiteBlue]

If some pulled their heads out their assess once in a while perhaps they might smell something different for a change

Please drop that offensive language.

[mcdenife]

I 'll have you know English is not an offensive language.

[autogyro]

I 'll have you know English is not an offensive language.

Depends on the level of inteligence of the person using it.
Briatorre was the team manager and held absolute responsibity for the actions of the Renault Team and all those who worked for it.
He was and is as guilty as hell and should be rotting in a jail in Singapore, not getting column inches in the press.
Such people damage F1 as a sport and the further they are kept from it the better.

[mcdenife]

Depends on the level of inteligence of the person using it.

Very true. But thankfully responsibility for the actions of others does not necessarilly or always equate to guilty of said actions, except if direct involvement, instigation of said actions or negligence is proved. The FIA's statement now makes that distinction explicitly and is punishing him for that responsibility. Something it could have done in the first place instead.

[autogyro]

Depends on the level of inteligence of the person using it.

Very true. But thankfully responsibility for the actions of others does not necessarilly or always equate to guilty of said actions, except if direct involvement, instigation of said actions or negligence is proved. The FIA's statement now makes that distinction explicitly and is punishing him for that responsibility. Something it could have done in the first place instead.

I tell you what, you imagine you are the manager of a Singapore Taxi company and you admit to being responsible for a driver driving one of your taxis and crashing on purpose into a wall and see how many years you would be doing in a Singapore jail.

[Rob W]

The pimp will come back!

Todt settles out of court. Symmonds and Briatore accept responsibility for race fixing and the FiA excludes them only until the end of 2012.

I'm tempted to say 'I told you so' to a few people here (not you WhiteBlue).

For no reason other on-going proceedings would almost certainly show up the FIA's bias and incompetence in their handling of these events they are allowing the lifetime ban to shrivel up quietly.

At least under Todt they admit the reason as basically being to avoid more bad PR (for themselves and the sport)

[WhiteBlue]

For no reason other on-going proceedings would almost certainly show up the FIA's bias and incompetence in their handling of these events they are allowing the lifetime ban to shrivel up quietly.

That is a very liberal interpretation of the facts. The FiA had legal problems to punish race fixing by creating a deliberate accident due to their licensing system. In order to protect themselves Renault had forced the perpetrators to quit their jobs. From this point in time they were not licensees of the FiA any more. To work in F1 they would not need a license unless they would represent a team. So the FiA told their other licensees not to employ the perps for life time respective 5 years. This was deemed illegal under European employment laws. This has nothing to do with bias or incompetence but with a loop hole in the licensing system.

A deeper look at the history of this case shows that the FiA will achieve the objective of punishing the race fixing and plugging the loop hole. The perps are still condemned for the cheating and have accepted a reduced punishment for their wrong doing. The FiA will change their licensing system to include share holders and directors of teams. Briatore and Symmonds can expect to have potential license applications rejected for unfitness. This is why Briatore told the press that he will never come back in a team principal role.