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The next big F1 scandal: Renault cheated?

4K views 54 replies 11 participants last post by  Teutone 
#1 ·
FIA calls Renault to face cheating charges

04/09/09 18:40

F1-Live.com

Piquet’s Singapore shunt under investigation
with Renault called to face cheating charges.
The FIA today confirmed that Renault has been requested to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council on Monday 21st September.

In a statement issued this afternoon by the sport’s governing body, the team has been called to answer charges, including a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code. That particular rule regards bringing the sport into disrepute via “any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motorsport generally.”

“The team conspired with its driver, Nelson Piquet Jr, to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix with the aim of causing the deployment of the safety car to the advantage of its other driver, Fernando Alonso,” reads the statement.

Our report from the inaugural Singapore event was entitled “the cards fall for Fernando Alonso,” and while Piquet’s crash certainly seemed genuine enough at the time, clearly the governing body - via its rumoured tip-off and subsequent investigations - does have some evidence to the contrary.


Should Renault be found guilty of the charges, penalties range from a fine to exclusion from the championship at a time when Formula One CEO Bernie Ecclestone has publically stated he fears the Anglo-French team could leave the series.

"The ING Renault F1 Team acknowledges the FIA’s request for representatives of the team to appear before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on the 21st of September 2009," the team said in a statement. "Before attending the hearing, the team will not make any further comment."

Click here for our Singapore 2008 race report...

Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International
 
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#32 ·
Renault Facing Criminal Charges & Lawsuits

How does Massa feel today? He misses the championship by one point last year. He was leading this race before Renault fixed it. If he had managed to finish 7th he'd have been champion.

Renault duo could face criminal charges - Yahoo! Eurosport UK


Renault duo could face criminal charges

Eurosport - Thu, 17 Sep 13:10:00 2009
Buzz Up!

Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds could be facing criminal charges for endangering lives after deciding not to contest charges of engineering Nelson Piquet Jr's crash at last year's Singapore Grand Prix.



Renault is due to appear before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on September 21 charged with bringing the sport into disrepute by having committed "a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, that the team conspired with its driver, Nelson Piquet Jr, to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix with the aim of causing the deployment of the safety car to the advantage of its other driver, Fernando Alsono".

There are also suggestions that both Briatore and Symonds may find themselves having to fend off a three-pronged legal attack.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Singapore could request extradition from a Commonwealth country should it consider the plot to have been an 'extradition crime' - a category that includes 'acts done with the intention of endangering vehicles, vessels or aircraft' or 'malicious or wilful damage to property'.

There are also possible litigious cases from Renault for dragging the company's global name and image so publicly through the mud and Ferrari.

Felipe Massa had been leading the race when his compatriot Piquet crashed, but following the safety car intervention and a botched pit-stop, the Sao Paulista went on to take the chequered flag outside the points in 13th, before ultimately missing out on the drivers' world championship crown to McLaren rival Lewis Hamilton by just a single marker in the final reckoning.

"There is a clear causal link between the alleged cheating and the financial loss to Massa and his team, reasoned specialist sports lawyer Stephen Hornsby. As for Renault suing Briatore, that is possible too but Renault are unlikely to want to keep the matter going for little reward."
Crash.net / Eurosport
 
#33 ·
Briatore: I sacrificed myself for the team

Briatore: I sacrificed myself for the team

Eurosport - Thu, 17 Sep 12:04:00 2009
Buzz Up!

Flavio Briatore said he sacrificed himself to save his Renault Formula One team but it will take more than the departure of a flamboyant Italian showman to repair the damage done by race-fixing revelations.
FORMULA 1 2009 - Renault principal Flavio Briatore in the pits during the qualifying session for the Italian GP - 0
More Stories

* Renault duo facing criminal charges
* What now for Renault?
* Renault race-fixing timeline
* The life and times of Flavio Briatore

"The worst act of cheating in the history of sport," declared the back page headline in The Times.

"I was just trying to save the team," Briatore said after Renault announced he and engineering head Pat Symonds had left the team after allegations they fixed last year's Singapore Grand Prix by ordering Brazilian Nelson Piquet to crash.

"It's my duty. That's the reason I've finished," he said.

Austria's triple champion Niki Lauda, who almost died in a fiery 1976 crash at the Nuerburgring, said the scandal marked a new low and the governing FIA needed to take a tough stance.

"The McLaren spying scandal two years ago was extremely serious but mechanics have always discussed technical data among themselves," he told the Daily Mail, referring to a controversy that cost McLaren a record $100 million fine.

"This, though, is new. The biggest damage ever. Now the FIA must punish Renault heavily to restore credibility in the sport."

Britain's Jackie Stewart, another triple champion, agreed.

"There is something fundamentally rotten and wrong at the heart of Formula One," he told The Sun. "Never in my experience has Formula One been in such a mood of self-destruction. Millions of fans are amazed, if not disgusted, at a sport which now goes from crisis to crisis with everyone blaming everyone else."

Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, a co-owner with Briatore of Queens Park Rangers, refused to stand up for a man who had been seen by some as his eventual successor.

"It is a pity that Flavio has ended his Formula One career in this way," the 78-year-old told the Daily Mirror. "You can't defend him at all. What he did was completely unnecessary. It's a pity that its happened."

Ecclestone still could not resist making light of Briatore's predicament, suggesting he would now have more time to pick QPR's team, and said the sport that he has built into a billion dollar business would not suffer.

"He (Briatore) told me recently that he didn't want to finish up like me, playing with racing cars at my age. So at least he's been saved that embarrassment," he said.

"It (the sport) has recovered from so many things when people have said it was finished and it will recover from this. It was supposed to be finished when Ayrton Senna died. It was supposed to be finished when Michael Schumacher retired.

"People say its been a torrid year but it always is in F1. There's always something going on. It's never peaceful."
Reuters
 
#34 ·
Consequences await former Renault F1 chiefs

Consequences await former Renault F1 chiefs

17/09/09 18:06

F1-Live.com

What next for Symonds and Briatore?
The loss of their jobs may not be the only ramifications faced by Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds after effectively admitting to race-fixing amid the 'crashgate' scandal, as the FIA's World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) meeting next Monday could result in lifetime bans on the pair.

But according to the Daily Telegraph, a guilty verdict could mean even more dramatic consequences, such as possible extradition to Singapore to face criminal charges for ordering a dangerous and violent incident to take place.

The British newspaper said other lawsuits are also possible, such as one on behalf of Felipe Massa or Ferrari, who might argue they lost the 2008 World Championship because of the events at the Singapore night race. However, such a move on the Italian team's part is unlikely.

The F1 chiefs' employer Renault SA, meanwhile, "may want to sue its former employees for allegedly bringing the company's name into disrepute," the Telegraph added. But specialist sports lawyer Stephen Hornsby said: "Renault are unlikely to want to keep the matter going for little reward."

In addition to his former team boss duties, also in the spotlight are Briatore's separate roles as a driver manager with his own firm FFBB and his co-ownership of the London football club Queens Park Rangers.


The Football League did not comment specifically, but the competition does not allow for an association with "anyone subject to a ban from the involvement in the administration of a sport by a sport's governing body." It is reported that the League is closely monitoring the situation.

The World Motor Sport Council, meanwhile, is tipped to look closely next Monday at the role played in the scandal by Briatore's apparent conflict of interest in being both Nelson Piquet's manager and his team boss.

An insider told the Guardian: "The wider implications for Flavio and others found to have put Piquet in this position, and what sanctions can be brought to prevent this happening again, are likely to be looked at by the WMSC."

As ever, Briatore's close friend Bernie Ecclestone found something ironic to say.

"He told me recently that he didn't want to finish up like me, playing with racing cars at my age," 78-year-old Ecclestone told the Daily Mirror. "So at least he's been saved that embarrassment."

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM
 
#36 ·
Renault Faces Financial Hit Because of Formula 1 Cheat Scandal

Renault Faces Financial Hit Because of Formula 1 Cheat Scandal


By Alex Duff

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Renault SA faces a fine and a struggle to find a new sponsor because of the cheating scandal involving its Formula One team.

The squad said Sept. 16 it won’t dispute charges by the sport’s ruling body that it conspired for Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix to help teammate Fernando Alonso win the race. In 2007, McLaren was fined $100 million for spying on rival Ferrari. Renault officials will attend a disciplinary hearing in Paris today.

The scandal will also hit the Renault F-1 team’s search for a sponsor to replace ING Groep NV with backing of as much as $90 million over the next three years, according to Mark Jenkins, a business strategy professor at the U.K.’s Cranfield University. ING announced it was quitting before the scandal.

“There are a lot of negative repercussions,” said Jenkins, who has written a book about Formula One. “One big question is: Where are they going to get sponsorship money from next year?”

The 24-year-old Piquet escaped injury as his car slammed into a concrete wall after 14 of 61 laps soon after Alonso had entered the pit lane. Alonso, who began the race in 15th place, moved up the field as other drivers followed him into the pits just after crash debris was cleared.

Brazil’s Piquet, the son of three-time world champion driver Nelson Piquet, gave evidence to ruling body Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, or FIA, about the incident after being dropped by Renault. He hadn’t finished higher than 10th in the first 10 races this year.

‘Damaging’

“In the short term the media spotlight will undoubtedly be damaging for Renault,” said Richard Houston, a brand strategist at Wolff Olins Ltd. The affair diverts attention from four all- electric prototype cars the French company launched last week at the Frankfurt Motor Show, he added.

Flavio Briatore, who led the team since it started, and engineering chief Pat Symonds left their posts Sept. 16. That may help diminish the sanction handed out by the FIA, according to Nazir Hossein, a former vice-president of the ruling body.

“The guys have gone, they’ve left and that speaks volumes,” Hossein said. “If the people responsible have gone would it be right to hurt Renault?”

Renault bought Benetton Group SpA’s team for $120 million in 2000 and its Spanish driver Alonso won the driving title in 2005 and 2006. Renault previously supplied engines to teams including Williams.

The French carmaker -- which will lose Alonso to Ferrari SpA’s team in November, according to Italian magazine Auto Sprint -- may seek to scale back its investment in Formula One because of the scandal, Jenkins said. Although in July it signed up to the series through 2012, it could relinquish management of the team, he said. Renault spokeswoman Patrizia Spinelli declined to comment.

“Renault may go back to being an engine provider and let other people take the risks,” Jenkins said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Duff in Madrid at aduff4@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: September 20, 2009 20:38 EDT
 
#38 ·
Briatore forced to wind up management firm

Briatore forced to wind up management firm

21/09/09 17:06

F1-Live.com

Driver forced to seek new management
Despite resigning from his role as managing director of the Renault F1 team, Flavio Briatore still manages a number of high profile drivers. The findings of the World Motor Sport Council, which has banned him indefinitely from the sport, mean that he will no longer be able to continue driver management in any FIA sanctioned series and that any driver associated with him will not be eligible for a superlicence.

Briatore’s firm, FFBB, manages Heikki Kovalainen and Mark Webber as well as Renault Development Drivers such as Romain Grosjean and Lucas di Grassi. In the past he has managed Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, amongst others.


In a fairly blunt statement the FIA made clear that any driver associated or managed by Briatore, will not be granted a superlicence - the essential qualification required to compete in Formula One. Kovalainen who is currently seeking a drive for next season will not be able to use the services of Briatore in his negotiations with McLaren or other potential teams.

Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International
 
#39 ·
Briatore banned for life

Renault Escapes F-1 Ban in Singapore Cheating Scandal (Update2)
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By Laurence Frost and Alex Duff

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Renault SA’s team escaped a ban from Formula One for a race-fixing scandal. Former team manager Flavio Briatore was excluded from the sport for life.

Renault will only be kicked out if found guilty of a comparable breach through 2011, the auto racing series’ ruling body said on its Web site today. Pat Symonds, the team’s former engineering chief, got a five-year ban.

The Renault team said Sept. 16 it wouldn’t dispute charges by the ruling body that it conspired for Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix to help teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.

The incident was of “unparalleled severity,” the ruling body, Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, said after a hearing at its offices in Paris today. The team “endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself.”

It’s the latest scandal to hit Formula One after the FIA fined McLaren $100 million in 2007 for spying on rival team Ferrari. It comes amid concern over future commercial support for F-1, after Honda Motor Co. announced its withdrawal last December and BMW AG said it will leave after this year’s series. ING Groep NV already announced it was withdrawing its sponsorship of the Renault team before the scandal broke.

Singapore Crash

Piquet escaped injury in Singapore as his car slammed into a concrete wall after 14 of 61 laps soon after Alonso had entered the pit lane. Alonso, who began the race in 15th place, moved up the field as other drivers followed him into the pits just after crash debris was cleared.

Only Briatore, Symonds and Piquet were involved in the conspiracy, the FIA said. Briatore and Symonds quit their posts last week.

Brazil’s Piquet Jr., the son of three-time world champion driver Nelson Piquet, gave evidence to the FIA about the incident after being dropped by Renault. He hadn’t finished higher than 10th in the first 10 races this year.

Piquet Jr. was granted immunity from punishment by the FIA for cooperating with their enquiries.

Renault agreed to remain in Formula One amid the negative publicity of the scandal, FIA President Max Mosley told reporters in Paris. In July, it signed up to race in the series through 2012. Renault spokeswoman Gita Roux said the carmaker had no immediate comment on Mosley’s remarks or on its future in the sport.

Road Safety

Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s chief executive, said he didn’t think the scandal would lead to Renault’s withdrawal from the sport.

“They’ve always said they were committed until 2012. I don’t see why they would rethink that now or at any time,” he said in a phone interview.

Renault, which apologized for its behavior, also agreed to make a “significant” contribution to FIA road safety projects.

“They’re going to do an awful lot for safety improvements,” Ecclestone said. “It’s more sensible than a fine really.”

Briatore, a former Benetton Group SpA executive who confesses to knowing little about cars, entered Formula One as commercial director of the apparel company’s team in 1989. He became team manager in 1991.

Briatore Background

He hired Michael Schumacher, who won the 1994 and 1995 driving championships for Benetton -- the first of his record seven titles. Briatore joined Renault after it bought Benetton’s team for $120 million.

Briatore oversaw Alonso’s driving championship wins in 2005 and 2006, when Renault also won the constructors’ championships.

He’s also part-owner of Queens Park Rangers, a second-tier English soccer team.

In a statement, Piquet Jr. said he “bitterly” regretted his actions “to follow the orders I was given. I wish every day that I had not done it.”

He said he still hoped to resurrect his racing career.

“I am so sorry to those who work in Formula One (including the many good people at Renault), the fans and the governing body,” he said. “I do not expect this to be forgiven or forgotten but at least now people can draw their conclusions based upon what really happened.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Laurence Frost in Paris at lfrost4@bloomberg.net; Alex Duff in Madrid at aduff4@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 21, 2009 10:28 EDT
 
#40 ·
Football League looks at Briatore

BBC SPORT
Football League looks at Briatore

The Football League has asked Formula 1's governing body the FIA for more details of Flavio Briatore's ban.

The Queens Park Rangers co-owner and ex-Renault team boss has been suspended indefinitely from FIA-sanctioned events over the F1 race-fixing scandal.

According to Football League rules, nobody can be a director or hold a majority interest in a club if they are banned from a sport's governing body.

The league said it will consider its position once the FIA has replied.

The 59-year-old Italian left his post as Renault team principal last week, along with executive director of engineering Pat Symonds, after the team decided not to contest FIA charges of fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

The charges were brought after Nelson Piquet Jr claimed he had been asked to crash in order to help team-mate Fernando Alonso.

At a World Motor Sport Council hearing on Monday, Briatore was banned with the FIA adding that it would not grant a licence to any team he was involved with or renew an F1 Superlicence granted to any driver associated with him.

Briatore is co-owner of QPR along with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

He is also chairman of the holding company that owns the club and a director on the board of the Championship side.

The Loftus Road club have refused to comment on the FIA's findings.
Story from BBC SPORT:
BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Q | QPR | Football League looks at Briatore

Published: 2009/09/21 17:08:31 GMT

© BBC MMIX
 
#41 ·
Briatore opted not to attend crash-gate hearing

Briatore opted not to attend crash-gate hearing

23/09/09 10:42

F1-Live.com

Briatore handed a lifetime ban from FIA championship’s
If Flavio Briatore attempts to sue the FIA for ending his career in motorsport, his case may be doomed by his failure to attend Monday's World Motor Sport Council hearing.

Documents released by the governing body confirm that the 59-year-old Italian, who emerged with the harshest penalty in the 'crash-gate' scandal, was invited to appear in Paris before the 26-member panel decided his fate.

FIA president Max Mosley said Briatore, as well as co-conspirator Pat Symonds, have 14 days to request the decision now be referred to the International Court of Appeal. But media speculation suggests the departed Renault boss may instead turn to ordinary courts.

"Whether he sues in Paris or in an English court, he is going to have to give an explanation for why he did not defend himself (on Monday)," leading British sports lawyer Kuldip Singh QC told The Times.


The FIA has confirmed that it was Briatore's continual denials of involvement in the saga, in the face of overwhelming evidence, that caused the Council to so harshly punish him.

The governing body said that when Briatore was invited in writing to attend on Monday, he "instead (argued) in a letter from his lawyer that he is not a licence holder and is not required to account to the FIA".

Said Bernie Ecclestone, F1's chief executive, a World Motor Sport Council member and a prominent friend and business partner of Briatore: "I tell you one thing, an apology from him might have helped. I think it was pretty well established that he knew what was going on.”

Source: GMM
 
#42 ·
James Allen on the race-fix verdict

James Allen on the race-fix verdict

Tuesday, 22 September 2009 10:38


Renault’s admission of guilt in the Singapore race-fixing scandal resulted in a suspended sentence for the team, but much more severe punishments for the key perpetrators, including Flavio Briatore’s permanent exile from Formula 1.

ITV.com/F1 columnist James Allen gives his reaction to the World Motor Sport Council decision and considers the precedent it sets.


I’m not overly surprised at the verdict as far as Flavio Briatore is concerned.

The moment the scandal came to light with all the reams of evidence and Briatore denied it, you knew that this was where this was heading.

Much has been made of Max Mosley wanting Briatore’s head in the same way he wanted Ron Dennis’s head, and there is some truth to this, but it’s not the full story.

Briatore was one of the main cheerleaders for FOTA, driving them on to criticise the FIA’s governance and launch a breakaway series.

It was no coincidence that the vote to break away was taken in a meeting at Renault’s HQ on the Thursday evening of the British Grand Prix, when Briatore provided the champagne with which they toasted their decision.

By all accounts Briatore wanted to be the commercial guru of the breakaway series and was very much the driving force.

Around the same time the European manufacturers’ association issued a statement saying it was time for a change of governance, heaping the pressure on Mosley, who accepted a deal to stand down in return for getting some of the cost-restriction agreements he was looking for.

So there was ‘history’ between Mosley and Briatore – but this Singapore saga was not started by Mosley.

It was started by Nelson Piquet, who was happy to keep quiet about it as long as he had a drive with Renault, but who decided to spill the beans after he was fired.

Once Piquet came forward, Mosley had no choice but to investigate and, as with Dennis, he found that his adversary had presented him with a gilt-edged opportunity.

I am slightly surprised by the outcome as far as Renault and Piquet are concerned.

Renault have been let off with a two-year suspended ban. This was decided on the basis that the punishment for the offence was disqualification, but because they had taken steps to get their house in order and remove the perpetrators, and because they presented an open and honest case to the Federation, the ban was suspended.

Not only that but they would have to do something comparable for the ban to kick in, which is highly unlikely.

I expected some kind of fine, something which would give manufacturers and parent companies a heads-up that they should take care to whom they hand over responsibility for racing in their name.

As for Piquet, he escapes scot-free, which the public and the F1 community will find very hard to accept.

Clearly he was hell-bent on telling his side of the story anyway, to bring down Briatore, so he may have given his testimony without the need for immunity, perhaps in return for a more lenient sentence.

To have allowed him to walk away with nothing sends out a rather odd signal.

Effectively the precedent set by this judgement (and the McLaren ‘liegate’ one too) is that if a team does something seriously wrong in future, the whistleblower can claim immunity and, as long as the management is removed, the team will escape punishment.

But things change quickly in F1 and in a month’s time we will have a new FIA president who might take a different view.

Both candidates propose a revised disciplinary system, which is less reliant on the World Council. So perhaps this precedent will not live long.

But the FIA must always keep an eye out for the credibility of the sport and of its judgements.

It hasn’t got it wrong here, but it has set itself up for criticism if it behaves very differently next time a team over steps the mark.

Let us hope, however, that we never see a team doing what Renault did at Singapore 2008 again.
 
#43 ·
Whistleblower sealed Briatore's demise

Whistleblower sealed Briatore's demise

Wednesday, 23 September 2009 13:33
F1 | ITV Sport

An unnamed Renault F1 employee, codenamed Witness X, provided the decisive evidence that implicated Flavio Briatore in the race-fixing scandal and sealed the Italian’s exile from Formula 1.

It had been thought that only three men – banished team boss Briatore, former engineering director Pat Symonds and ex-driver Nelson Piquet Jr – had been aware of the plot to cause a deliberate crash in last year’s Singapore Grand Prix – which resulted in Renault being handed a suspended F1 expulsion earlier this week.

However, the emergence of a “whistleblower” from inside the Enstone-based squad was revealed in both written and recorded evidence from Monday’s World Motor Sport Council hearing when it was released late on Tuesday evening.

The unnamed team member – whose identity is only known by his employers, FIA president Max Mosley and certain FIA legal advisers – played no role in the conspiracy, but last week came forward to provide evidence to first Renault’s internal investigations team and then in an interview with the governing body that confirmed Briatore was involved in the plot.

As although in its written submissions to the FIA last Wednesday Renault said it would not contest the charges and that both Briatore and Symonds had left the team, the governing body says that “Renault F1 did not expressively confirm at that stage that it considered Mr Briatore himself to have participated in the conspiracy” alongside Symonds and Piquet.

The FIA subsequently argued that it was “imperative to conduct further enquires in order that all available facts could be presented to the WMSC".

Renault duly sent a second set of submissions on September 17, in which it confirmed that an unnamed employee had named Briatore as being part of the conspiracy.

“In those additional submissions, Renault F1 referred to the existence of another member of the Renault F1 team (“Witness X”) who, although not a conspirator himself, knew of the conspiracy at the time of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix,” FIA evidence read.

“Renault F1 stated in its submissions of 17 September 2009 that Witness X had confirmed that Mr Briatore had known of the deliberate crash plan before it had been put into effect.”

The whistleblower told Renault’s legal representative that Piquet Jr had approached Symonds after Saturday qualifying in Singapore to suggest the idea of causing a deliberate crash on race day “to atone for his poor qualifying session”.

The unnamed employee also alleged that “Mr Symonds mentioned the idea to Mr Briatore”, while also confirming that, to his knowledge, no one else in the team had been part of the conspiracy.

After Renault requested that the identity of the whistleblower be protected so not to discourage other staff members to come forward with evidence relating to this, or future, cases, the FIA sent one of its external counsels to interview the team member.

In the interview, the FIA emerged confident that Witness X himself had played no active role in the scandal and instead had opposed it.

“When the FIA’s advisers interviewed Witness X, he expressly confirmed that Mr Briatore was involved in the conspiracy because Witness X had been personally present at a meeting shortly after qualifying on Saturday 27 September 2008 when Mr Symonds had mentioned the possibility of a crash plan to Mr Briatore,” FIA evidence read.

“The FIA’s advisers were confident that Witness X himself played no active role in the conspiracy and that, indeed, he had objected to it and sought to distance himself from it.”

Briatore himself has publicly denied he was involved in the conspiracy to manipulate the result of the race and, alongside Renault, launched criminal proceedings against Piquet and his father earlier this month for making “false allegations” and trying to blackmail the team.

Indeed in Renault’s set of submissions on September 17, in which it revealed the evidence supplied by the whistleblower, it said that when the allegations were put to him Briatore “consistently denied any involvement and did not recall the alleged discussion [with Symonds]”.

However, addressing the WMSC hearing in Paris on Monday the FIA’s lawyer, Paul Harris, described Witness X as being “very forthcoming and in our opinion entirely truthful”.

The FIA’s lawyer added that the governing body was confident that its investigations had proved Briatore, Symonds and Piquet had all been involved in the plot.

“The FIA is of course conscious that Mr Briatore denied any involvement in, or even knowledge, of the conspiracy,” Harris told the WMSC.

“The FIA is also aware of reports in the press, if they are to be believed, in which Mr Briatore continues to deny any involvement in the conspiracy and has even suggested that he resigned from Renault F1 for the good of the team.

“However, the FIA is confident that its investigations have been very thorough and that it has now got to the bottom of this very serious matter.

“Accordingly the view of the FIA investigation team is that on the balance of probabilities there was a three-person conspiracy consisting of Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jr and that Witness X knew at the time of the conspiracy, although he played no role.”

The FIA said that Briatore’s insistence that he hadn’t done anything wrong, despite the evidence against him, contributed to the severity of his punishment, which has resulted in his banishment from FIA-sanctioned motorsport events and an effective termination of his driver management business.

Former right-hand man Symonds escaped slightly more lighty - a five-year motorsport ban - as the FIA said he had admitted taking part in the conspiracy and apologised to the WMSC for doing so.
 
#44 ·
F-1 Ban May Cost Briatore $9.1 Million a Year, Accounts Show

F-1 Ban May Cost Briatore $9.1 Million a Year, Accounts Show
F-1 Ban May Cost Briatore $9.1 Million a Year, Accounts Show - Bloomberg.com

By Alex Duff

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Former Renault Formula One team manager Flavio Briatore could lose out on at least $9.1 million a year after resigning because of a cheating scandal, company accounts show.

The 59-year-old Italian was banned for life from the auto racing series on Sept. 21 for conspiring to fix a race. He collected $7.6 million in consultancy fees from selling series television rights in Spain in 2007 on top of his $1.5 million salary. He also benefited from management contracts with drivers including Red Bull’s Mark Webber and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen. The team escaped with a suspended ban.

“They’ve isolated him,” Mark Borkowski, a public relations consultant in London, said in an interview. “His brand is damaged: He’s got an uncertain future.”

Briatore’s troubles extend to his other holdings. He may face a ban from co-owning English soccer’s Queens Park Rangers under league rules. He denies wrongdoing, according to Formula One’s ruling body, Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, which says he has 14 days to appeal.

This weekend is this year’s Singapore Grand Prix, the race where Briatore and Renault team engineering chief Pat Symonds conspired with driver Nelson Piquet Jr. for him to crash last year to help teammate Fernando Alonso win, according to the FIA. Piquet Jr., dropped by the team in August, and a whistleblower dubbed “Witness X” gave evidence about the plot, the FIA said.

Briatore left his post last week. The FIA then ruled drivers managed by Briatore must end their contracts with him and he will be denied access to races for life. He also manages Renault’s Romain Grosjean.

Left Without Means

“He has been left without his means to earn a living,” Carlos Gracia, president of the Spanish motor racing federation, told the newspaper As. Briatore may sue the FIA because there was no clear evidence to incriminate him and he didn’t have a chance to defend himself, Gracia added.

Briatore couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.

Renault’s removal of Briatore and Symonds helped mitigate its sanction, the FIA said. The FIA also took into account an apology by Renault and a “significant” contribution it agreed to make to FIA road safety projects.

Briatore, who entered Formula One in 1989 as commercial director of Benetton SpA’s team, has multiple interests in Formula One, some of them stemming from his friendship with series Chief Executive Officer Bernie Ecclestone, former Minardi team manager Paul Stoddart said.

Tied at Hip

“Flavio and Bernie are inextricably tied at the hip,” Stoddart said.

Ecclestone ceded Briatore the television rights to Formula races in Spain, the Italian said in an interview in 2006. The rights are exploited via Stacourt Ltd., a unit of Briatore’s Formula FB Business, which is based in the British Virgin Islands. In 2007, Briatore received 4.7 million pounds ($7.6 million) in consultancy fees, company filings of Stacourt in London show.

Ecclestone, 78, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail sent to his London office seeking comment and an FIA official didn’t return an e-mail seeking comment about whether the deals were affected.

Ecclestone and Briatore in 2003 set up the GP2 series, which runs on Formula One race weekends, with the Italian’s associate Bruno Michel. The series was sold to CVC Capital Partners Ltd. in 2007 for an undisclosed amount. The private equity firm bought Formula One a year earlier after taking out $2.5 billion in loans.

Soccer Issues

In soccer, Briatore and Ecclestone bought second-tier Queens Park Rangers for 14 million pounds in 2007. Steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal bought a 20 percent stake four months later. Earlier this month, league officials asked the FIA for documentation about Briatore’s case. League rules say team owners or directors should be barred if subject to a ban from a sports governing body.

Neither Ecclestone nor Mittal has condemned Briatore and the possibility of repairing his public image isn’t out of the question, Borkowski said.

“He has a lot of powerful friends and Formula One is one of the most unpredictable sports,” Borkowski said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Duff in Madrid at aduff4@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: September 24, 2009 19:01 EDT
 
#45 ·
Title sponsor ING axes Renault backing

Title sponsor ING axes Renault backing

24/09/09 20:44

F1-Live.com

Crashgate consequences at Renault
Renault's title sponsor ING late on Thursday said it has terminated its contract with the French team "with immediate effect."

Mere hours after Spanish insurance backer Mutua Madrilena pulled its logos from the R29 for the same reason, the Dutch bank ING said it has also decided to end its association with Renault because of the Crashgate scandal.

It is believed that both sponsors cite a clear and serious breach of contract, due to clauses requiring the Enstone-based team to comply with FIA rules and regulations.

"ING is deeply disappointed at this turn of events, especially in the context of an otherwise successful sponsorship," a media statement issued late on Thursday read.


The statement went out to the world's media in the dead of the Singapore night, after team mechanics had throughout Thursday worked on the fully ING-branded cars in the pits of the Asian city-state's street circuit.

All team equipment as well as personnel and driver apparel also carried prominent ING branding as per usual on Thursday, the day before official practice for the weekend's Singapore Grand Prix begins.

Like Mutua Madrilena, ING had previously decided not to stay in Formula One beyond 2009.

© CAPSIS International
Source: GMM
 
#46 ·
Here's the backstory on Mutua Madrilena...

Sponsor leaves Renault after crash-gate scandal (GMM) As a direct consequence of the crash-gate scandal, Renault sponsor Mutua Madrilena has cancelled its sponsorship of the French team with immediate effect.

The Madrid based insurance company, whose deal with the formula one team was estimated at 3.5 million euros, already intended to leave the sport at the end of 2009.

Spanish news agency EFE reports that the firm wrote a letter to Renault in the wake of Monday's World Motor Sport Council hearing pointing out that it is no longer contractually bound to the team because Renault had broken the sport's rules.

Mutua Madrilena requested that the contract be terminated immediately, and indeed in the Renault garage on Thursday the Singapore-specification R29 cars no longer featured the company's logos on the monocoque sides.
 
#47 ·
A 59 year old who has made millions per year for who knows how long, has "been left without his means to earn a living" could retire in comfort.
Nelson Jr. must have listened to his dad, he got off scott free.
 
#53 ·
A 59 year old who has made millions per year for who knows how long, has "been left without his means to earn a living" could retire in comfort.
People tend to crank their lifestyle up to just a little above whatever they're making.

And on another note, I just don't get how they allow someone to be a race team director and professionally manage drivers at the same time. Isn't this a huge conflict of interest?
 
#48 ·
Was Flavio B. involved?

Grosjean repeats Piquet crash in Singapore practice

SINGAPORE - French rookie Romain Grosjean halted Singapore Grand Prix first practice on Friday by crashing his Renault at the same place where Nelson Piquet deliberately smashed into the wall a year ago.

In an amazing flashback to that inaugural 2008 race, Grosjean lost control on turn 17 of the Marina Bay Street Circuit and slammed into the opposite wall.

Renault were handed a suspended permanent ban for race-fixing earlier this week after Piquet confessed to crashing on purpose last year in a plot to help team mate Fernando Alonso win after the safety car was deployed.

Grosjean, who replaced Brazilian Piquet in August and was passed fit only on Friday morning after feeling unwell on Thursday, had completed nine laps when he crashed. He has not previously raced at the track.

Brawn GP's championship leader Jenson Button had recorded the fastest time of the session before the cars were ordered to return to the garages.

The track was cleared nine minutes after the crash and practice resumed with 36 minutes remaining. A second session will take place at 9:30 p.m.

Grosjean repeats Piquet crash in Singapore practice - Yahoo! Singapore News
 
#49 ·
David Richards linked with Renault buyout

David Richards linked with Renault buyout

25/09/09 18:11

F1-Live.com

As Renault assesses the damage to its image and counts the fleeing sponsors, David Richards has entered the frame as the crash-gate scandal rolls on.

Media reports, including by the German news agency SID as well as the British broadcaster BBC, claim the Prodrive and Aston Martin chief Richards may be waiting in the wings to take over the French squad.

BBC claimed that the Briton, who was team principal for a time in the Benetton days at the end of the 90s, may be willing to buy the team for US $50m. SID meanwhile said that the 57-year-old met recently with Renault SA CEO Carlos Ghosn at the Frankfurt motor show, and also visited the team's British headquarters.

Taking over from the ousted and banned former team boss Flavio Briatore as of this weekend as managing director is Jean-Francois Caubet, previously Renault's communications and marketing chief. He admitted in Singapore that Renault had erred during the Briatore reign in steadily losing "the Renault culture".

"We don't want to make the same mistakes that have come about by letting the team have 100% autonomy," said Caubet.

He would not comment on speculation that the current new management structure, with Bob Bell the acting team boss, is merely a stepping stone to Alain Prost taking up the job full time.

"I have no comment to make on the names that have been put forward," said Caubet.
"We will look for someone when the responsibilities of the role have been finalised. That could be in December or in January."

He also insisted that Renault is not shaping up to simply walk away from the sport, despite the damage inflicted by the crash-gate scandal.

"During these last few weeks, when we accepted that we were guilty, we have had two decisions to take. Either we would not cross the fire or we would. We finished by crossing," he explained.

"We came out heavily burnt, this is true, and the image of the team has been hurt. We have had very bad coverage in the world's press for the last two weeks, but we have crossed the fire and we are going ahead.

"Today it's business as usual without asking questions. We are nevertheless still in a difficult situation as ING has departed, sponsorship and finances are difficult, and there are decisions over the business model of F1 in the longer term.

"These are serious questions which we must address and find answers," Caubet added.

Source: GMM
� CAPSIS International
 
#51 ·
"We all want to put on a great show but, unfortunately, in every walk of life there's always one or two individuals that ruin it for everyone. It happens at school, it happens in the office, it happens in every walk of life. What we have to do is just try to rise above it." Lewis Hamilton
 
#55 ·
Permane is 'Witness X'

Permane is 'Witness X'

Eurosport - Tue, 29 Sep 16:17:00 2009


The identity of 'Witness X', who provided vital evidence which earned Renault managing director Flavio Briatore a lifelong ban from motorsport, has been reported to be chief race engineer Alan Permane.

The Daily Mail said Permane, a respected longstanding member of both the team and the F1 community, is the identity of the witness previously known only to FIA President Max Mosley and a small team of key legal advisors.

Rumours had circulated that the man in question was Renault driver Fernando Alonso, who benefited from the 'fix' by winning the Singapore Grand Prix after team-mate and chief whistle-blower Nelson Piquet Jr crashed.

Renault were handed a two-year suspended exclusion from competition by the FIA's World Motor Sport Council, while executive director of engineering Pat Symonds was penalised with a five-year ban from Formula One.

The documents released by the WMSC following the trial stated: "Renault F1 referred to the existence of another member of the Renault F1 team who, although not a conspirator himself, knew of the conspiracy at the time of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

"When the FIA's advisors interviewed Witness X, he expressly confirmed that Mr. Briatore was involved in the conspiracy because Witness X had been personally present at a meeting shortly after qualifying on Saturday 27 September 2008 when Mr. Symonds had mentioned the possibility of a crash plan to Mr. Briatore.

"Witness X confirmed that Mr. Briatore had known of the deliberate crash plan before it had been put into effect. (Witness X) was told of the idea suggested by Nelson Piquet Jr by Mr. Symonds, whilst in the presence of Mr. Briatore.

"(Witness X) objected to the idea... and sought to distance himself from it. He did not know the plan was to be carried into effect until the crash happened.

"As a result of the evidence, including Mr. Piquet's admission, Mr. Symonds's responses and (Witness X's) evidence, Renault F1 concluded that they and Mr. Briatore must have known about the conspiracy."
Crash.Net / Eurosport
 
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