Briatore gets banned, Renault given suspended sentence and the fallout begins!

[Ardius]

But there's no way around it. Piquet is screwed either way. 1. for actually doing it and 2. keeping this a secret from FIA and they will NOT like this one bit. You can point as many fingers as you want at Briatore and Symonds but that's not going to change the fact that you did what you did.

Yup, he's already going down, he's just also dragging as many people down with him.

I agree with the sentiments that its disappointing for Symonds - he was a lot more respectable than Flav, but then again whose idea was it to take the filters off the fuel rigs in 1994?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Reanult are launching legal action against the Piquets:

Renault begins Piquets criminal action

By Pablo Elizalde - Friday, September 11th 2009, 10:21 GMT

The Renault team and its boss Flavio Briatore have begun criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Junior and Nelson Piquet Senior following an alleged attempt "to blackmail" the French squad.

Renault is facing allegations of race-fixing after Piquet Jr told the FIA saying he had been asked to crash during the Singapore Grand Prix in order to benefit team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Briatore denied the accusations as "outrageous lies" and threatened with legal action, a threat that materialised on Friday, when Renault announced it had begun criminal proceedings against Piquet and his father.

"The FIA has announced that it is to hold an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council ('WMSC') on 21 September 2009," said Renault in a statement.

"The ING Renault F1 Team is to attend that meeting and answer allegations that members of the team conspired with Nelson Piquet Jnr to cause a deliberate accident at the 2008 Singapore GP, so that Fernando Alonso might benefit from the resulting safety car.

"The ING Renault F1 Team had not commented publicly during the FIA's initial investigation into this matter.

"However, today the ING Renault F1 Team and its Managing Director Flavio Briatore personally, wish to state that they have commenced criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Junior and Nelson Piquet Senior in France concerning the making of false allegations and a related attempt to blackmail the team into allowing Mr Piquet Jnr to drive for the remainder of the 2009 season.

"The matter will also be referred to the Police in the UK."

 

[yeti]

Too little too late from the bluster master if you ask me... the fact that he and Symonds both said that they had actually discussed crashing to gift the race to Alonso seems to me to be the final nail in this particular coffin...

Also - why are the UK police dealing with this?

C.

 

[C-ZETA]

Piquet's no longer driving for Renault, so could that effect be vital to the investigation?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Also - why are the UK police dealing with this?

Renault might be a French manufacturer and the incident might have happened in Singapore, but the Renault F1 team is based in Enstone, not far from Silverstone. They've passed it on to the British police because Briatore's response to Piquet's claims seems to be that Piquet crashed on purpose and then blackmailed the team to get a 2009 drive. Even if these allegations fall through, he's trying to discredit Piquet an spread the lame around. Piquet is obviously trying to be the proverbial White Knight here, blowing the whistle on Briatore and Renault because it's the right thing to do. Briatore is setting him up as saying that Piquet is only doing this now because he's making good on his blackmail threat.

 

[Peter]

Well, Piquet is as good as done in F1.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Well, Piquet is as good as done in F1.

As if being spectacularly inept wasn't enough.

Max Mosley was really struggling not to say "they're done for" when discussing the matter with Autosport.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

You know, I just read that interview with him - and the abridged version - and I have to say ... for someone who has supposedly lost his marbles, Max Mosley does talk sense on occasion. He's absolutely right when he says race-fixing is as serious as cheating, if not worse. That example he made saying if it were any other sport - like cycling - then the allegations would be treated with the utmost seriousness is actually a pretty reasonable statement at the least.

 

[tibiquera]

It's ridiculous how many scandals we're getting lately in F1. I'm beginning to agree with FIA on the FIA vs FOTA case. Get rid of manufacturers and get back to the old days of privately owned teams.

This is the FIA. They can do anything, regardless of how irrational or retarded it seems to normal folk. Remember that they changed the results of thirteen completed races in 2007 (though only for one team - the others weren't moved up).

Well, remember that they did it in 1997 against Schumacher. And looking impartially at it, one would have to agree with the punishment in both cases.

 

[Famine]

Well, remember that they did it in 1997 against Schumacher. And looking impartially at it, one would have to agree with the punishment in both cases.

I wouldn't agree with either.

Schumacher was effectively banned for a season for a single-corner incident - the FIA punished him for "causing an avoidable accident". Fast-forward to the German Grand Prix this year - Mark Webber was punished by the stewards for "causing an avoidable accident" on lap 1, turn 1 and was given a drive through penalty...

McLaren were banned for a season for a single employee having data on another team, with no evidence that the data was ever used to give the team itself any advantage. Renault, on the other hand, had two years' worth of data on McLaren's cars on their server and received no punishment at all despite being found guilty of exactly the same breach.


It's little wonder fans get frustrated with the complete lack of consistency from the FIA.

 

[Ardius]

It's ridiculous how many scandals we're getting lately in F1. I'm beginning to agree with FIA on the FIA vs FOTA case. Get rid of manufacturers and get back to the old days of privately owned teams.

There will always be scandals in sports, F1 is no exception and its a little unfair to blame FOTA or the manufacturers for this. Did BMW do anything wrong? Toyota?
I agree that we should have more privateer teams and less big spending, but it won't solve the "problem" of all these scandals. Teams will cheat regardless of manufacturer backing.

I don't see the connection anyway.

 

[tibiquera]

McLaren were banned for a season for a single employee having data on another team, with no evidence that the data was ever used to give the team itself any advantage. Renault, on the other hand, had two years' worth of data on McLaren's cars on their server and received no punishment at all despite being found guilty of exactly the same breach.

I don't know the specifics in the case, but didn't Renault voluntarily told they had McLaren's specifics and gave it back as soon as they got it from someone, while McLaren kept it as a secret? At least that's the impression I got.

I don't see the connection anyway.

Manufacturers see it as a business where their goal is to make money, and whenever it doesn't fit their business plans they'll get out just like Honda and BMW did. Privateers are there because of their love for the sport. My complaint is that ever since we got the shift from privateers to manufacturers, f1 has gone downhill and the "soul" of the sport is gone. And when you have big corporations running the sport, the chances of having those controversies are increased in my opinion.

 

[Only_in_f1]

I've just heard that Flav has accused Piquet of being gay.

We'll see how this story develops..

 

[C-ZETA]

I've just heard that Flav has accused Piquet of being gay.

We'll see how this story develops..

Ouch. And he thought Kovalainen was just a plain waste when he started as a Renault driver...

 

[Only_in_f1]

Hello everyone.

Not sure if this is news already in your medias, but in Brazil it is all over.

A couple of hours ago Flavio Briatore gave an interview for multiple journalists in Monza to present a new view of the current Renault crisis. He finally talked a bit about the whole thing, but added the wierdest factor in the whole ridiculous story.

Nelsinho Piquet alledgedly had a homossexual relationship with a much older man in Oxford. This man even lived with him for some time. Briatore in theory brought him from Oxford to London and made him break this relationship because of image problems, etc. In theory, this was agreed with Nelsinho's father. That was the beginning of the whole crisis between Piquet and Renault.

So... a good turn in the stories. A good piece of news for the celebrity news tabloids.

In Brazil this is everywhere now.

Interesting

 

[tibiquera]

Interesting

Yeah, here's an article if anyone feels like reading in Portuguese:
http://globoesporte.globo.com/Espor...O+TINHA+RELACOES+COM+UM+HOMEM+MAIS+VELHO.html

Man, this is getting ugly.

 

[daan]

I've just remembered a post I made during the race

[conspiracy theory]
Piquet crashed deliberately so that the safety car would come out, in order to get Alonso up the front.
[/conspiracy theory]

EDIT: And Ferrari used a lollipop on that stop. The semi-automated system will be in the bin by now.

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3170514#post3170514

 

[NapoleonMikey]

this is just getting to be hilarious. im just waiting for godwins law to take effect between them now. my guess is Piquet will be the one to say it. but just wow how that had to do with anything i dont know but touche that is a low blow by briatore.

 

[mipuumal]

McLaren were banned for a season for a single employee having data on another team, with no evidence that the data was ever used to give the team itself any advantage.

Wrong, McLaren used the data to develop parts of their 2008 car. I forget what the specific thing was but the FIA told them to remove it from their 2008 car before the season started and they did so.

Also if only one person had the data then how do you explain Pedro De la Rosa and Alonso talking about the data via email?

Regarding Nelsinho's alleged affair with a "much older man", what are the odds that this man is Flav himself .

 

[Famine]

There's a thread for those questions. This isn't it.

I should add though that McLaren were instructed to submit their 2008 car for scrutineering by the FIA before the season started and they would have been suspended from the 2008 season should any "influence" from the Ferrari data possessed by Mike Coughlan be found on the 2008 car. So there wasn't anything they were told to take off...

 

[Bram Turismo]

Interesting

That kind of behaviour between Briatore and Piquet is getting disgraceful and childish. This is utterly... I can't even find the appropriate words for this matter in such a big automotive world. 👎

 

[Only_in_f1]

Well its full circle. Piquet Srn branned the same accusations about a young up and coming threat called Ayrton Senna

 

[tibiquera]

Regarding Nelsinho's alleged affair with a "much older man", what are the odds that this man is Flav himself .

I was thinking about Max Mosley in a Nazi costume.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

I've just heard that Flav has accused Piquet of being gay.

We'll see how this story develops..

Can we have a citation for that please? Only Flav gave an extensive interview to Autosport, from which it's missing. I'm not casting doubt that it was said, I'd just be really interested in the context. Sometime's Flav's not so great with English, sometimes he pretends he's not so great with English.

 

[Only_in_f1]

http://globoesporte.globo.com/Espor...O+TINHA+RELACOES+COM+UM+HOMEM+MAIS+VELHO.html


'Flavio Briatore hints that Nelson had sex with an older man

After processing the pilot and his father, leader calls for Brazilian spoiled


When the scandal involving Nelson Piquet, Flavio Briatore and Renault appeared to have reached one of its worst moments, with the process of the Brazilian team against the French judicial authorities, the Italian leader was in charge of lowering the level further.
In an interview on Friday in Monza, Briatore hinted that Nelson Piquet had a relationship with an older man in England. And more: that Nelson Piquet, father of the pilot had asked for the manager to intercede and stop the alleged relationship.

- Nelson is a spoiled kid who always ran with his team. When it was a real competition, he lost his head. He accused me of having broken a relationship with a friend. I was asked was that his father (Nelson Piquet). Nelson lived with this gentleman. The father was concerned about the relationship that her son had with him. I made him to move from Oxford to London to keep it under control - Briatore said in an interview with Radio Jovem Pan

While still competing, Nelson Piquet became public that some drivers in Formula 1 would make jokes about Ayrton Senna. Piquet said they had doubts about the sexuality of the Brazilian.

 

[LancerEvo7]

Oh my God, both parties are taking this way too far. Just wait till the trial, and if Renault gets banned and Piquet never touches an F1 car again, then Happy Birthday to me. (For those who don't know/haven't read the thread, the trial's on my birthday)

 

[Bram Turismo]

Well its full circle. Piquet Srn branned the same accusations about a young up and coming threat called Ayrton Senna

Whether it's Sr., Jr. or Briatore, this kind of low respect and behaviour towards one another is not to be accepted. If Renault wants to keep any F1 image at all, I suggest fire Briatore, at all costs. I've never liked the substence that came out of his mouth whenever he didn't get things his way. By the way, isn't Briatore Spanish? Somewhere above it is mentioned that he is Italian?

 

[Christian_C]

This has just reached a ridiculous stage now, I mean seriously even if Piquet is homosexual what does this have to do with the investigation?

 

[L_Hamilton]

Whether it's Sr., Jr. or Briatore, this kind of low respect and behaviour towards one another is not to be accepted. If Renault wants to keep any F1 image at all, I suggest fire Briatore, at all costs. I've never liked the substence that came out of his mouth whenever he didn't get things his way. By the way, isn't Briatore Spanish? Somewhere above it is mentioned that he is Italian?

He is Italian.

This has just reached a ridiculous stage now, I mean seriously even if Piquet is homosexual what does this have to do with the investigation?

That's what sparked the hate between Renault and Piquet because Flavio supposedly told him to break up with whoever. According to Flavio, that is.

 

[Ardius]

This has just reached a ridiculous stage now, I mean seriously even if Piquet is homosexual what does this have to do with the investigation?

To Flavio it means everything