Briatore/F1 - Future Steps

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Briatore/F1 - Future Steps Jan 7, 2010 8:30:23 GMT

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Post by QPR Report on Jan 7, 2010 8:30:23 GMT

Telegraph

Flavio Briatore's lifetime ban will eventually stick despite court victory, says Max Mosley
Max Mosley says Flavio Briatore's threat to pursue legal action against the Piquet family is "all talk", adding that he believes the lifetime ban meted out to him by the FIA's World Motor Sport Council for alleged race-fixing will eventually stand.

By Tom Cary, F1 Correspondent
Published: 7:15AM GMT 07 Jan 2010

On Tuesday, Briatore succeeded in getting the ban for his part in Nelson Piquet Jr's deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix overturned by a civil court, which cited "irregularities" in the way in which the council, chaired by then FIA president Mosley, reached its verdict.

But as the Italian luxuriated in his freedom on Wednesday, telling anyone who would listen that he had "no involvement at all" in the scandal dubbed 'Crashgate' and warning the Piquets that "the bad that has been done to me won't be forgotten in one day", the man he accused of driving him out of the sport as a result of a personal vendetta warned him not to get too cocky.

"It's just talk," Mosley told Telegraph Sport of Briatore's threat to sue the Piquets. "A little bit of boasting to the Italian press. The fact is if he went after the Piquets there would be a countersuit that would make his eyes water.

"In fact, I think he will be very fortunate not to get sued by the Piquets, because don't forget he accused them of blackmail and extortion [in a letter to Nelson Piquet Snr last September that was subsequently leaked to the press], which is very defamatory. It may well be, I don't know, that the Piquets are preparing to sue him."

Mosley, who stood down as president of motorsport's world governing body in the wake of last September's WMSC hearing, described Tuesday's judgement in the Tribunal de Grande Instance as "seriously flawed" and said the FIA should definitely appeal the decision, since there was no doubt in his mind that Briatore and his former director of engineering Pat Symonds were guilty.

"Remember, the court did not find that [Briatore] was not guilty," Mosley said. "They just didn't like the procedure we used. But it's a very preliminary judgement. I think the FIA should appeal the judgement because I think it is seriously flawed in a number of areas.

"Aspects of it are just extraordinary. Symonds actually admitted in writing that he was guilty and yet they found in his favour. But that's only because they are not looking at the substance, they are just looking at the procedure." Mosley also took umbrage with the French court's assertion that Briatore had been the victim of a personal vendetta or that he had "played a key role in the legal process, violating the principle of a separation of the bodies responsible for the investigation and for the judgment".

"The inquiry was carried out by the stewards, completely independently, with the supervision of outside lawyers. My involvement was purely in the world council. So the suggestion that I had it in for him is complete nonsense.

"After the whole row with the teams last summer he and I had a very friendly lunch in Monaco at Rampoldi's. There was never an animus there. This was all invented to distract attention from the fact he committed the worst example of cheating in the history of sport."

Mosley also refused to accept that Tuesday's ruling reflected poorly on the FIA's judicial system. "As far as the FIA is concerned I would really want to hear what the superior court said before I would be prepared to acknowledge that the advice we got from outside lawyers was incorrect.

"But the suggestion that we can't penalise anyone who doesn't have a licence is very serious because, for example, we wouldn't be able to ban those people who blacked up their faces and upset Lewis Hamilton [in Barcelona in 2008] from coming to a race.

"But in any case the FIA can easily change its rules so that it takes account of what the court said. They said we weren't allowed to ban non-licence holders. Well obviously you can bring in a rule which does allow you to, if you wish.

"One thing's for sure, it's very far from over."

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/6943302/Flavio-Briatores-lifetime-ban-will-eventually-stick-despite-court-victory-says-Max-Mosley.html

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Briatore/F1 - Future Steps Jan 7, 2010 8:31:35 GMT

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Post by QPR Report on Jan 7, 2010 8:31:35 GMT

IRish Independent - Motorsport: Mosley: FIA must keep door locked on Briatore

By Edward Gorman

Thursday January 07 2010

FLAVIO BRIATORE may be celebrating a decision by the French courts to lift his lifetime ban from motorsport, but the man who was instrumental in imposing that sanction says there is still no possibility of the Italian working in F1 again.

Max Mosley retired as president of the FIA shortly after presiding over a hearing of the World Motor Sport Council in September that handed the former Renault team principal a lifetime ban and Pat Symonds, the team's former engineering director, a five-year suspension for conspiring with Nelson Piquet Jr to have him crash on purpose during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Since then Mosley has been content to let his successor, Jean Todt, get on with running the show at the FIA's headquarters at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

But the decision by a court in the French capital on Tuesday to allow Briatore and Symonds to resume their careers has touched a raw nerve in Mosley. In short, he remains determined that the measures taken by the FIA under his leadership on 'Crashgate' are not undone and he says that Todt is of the same mind.

In an interview, Mosley argued that the raison d'etre of the sport's governing body would be undermined if men such as Briatore, who has denied that he knew of the conspiracy, and Symonds, who admitted his guilt and retracted that admission, were to get off scot-free.

"If we can't sanction somebody for doing what Briatore and Symonds did, then the whole purpose and basis of the FIA would be in question, because it goes to the heart of safety, of fairness and to all the fundamental points of our activity," Mosley said. "The idea that we might say, 'Oh, it's all right' would be unthinkable.

"That would be the end of any credibility for Formula One because you cannot envisage a more serious example of cheating than what happened in Singapore. Not only was it dishonest from the cheating point of view, it put lives in danger."

Mosley denied that his intervention at this stage was a clear example of him still trying to run the FIA after having handed over to Todt. "No, absolutely not," he said. "I speak to Todt from time to time but only on a friendly basis and also Bernie (Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights holder) from time to time. But I'm very much retired and enjoying it and I don't want to get involved."

The former FIA president said that Briatore's celebrations after the judgment on Tuesday were premature because, even if the governing body fails in an appeal in the French courts, it will change its sporting rules. "This could be done very quickly to give the FIA the power to exclude from any activity in motorsport any person who has acted in contravention of the basic rules of sport, or done something dangerous," Mosley said.

action

Briatore has said that he may consider returning to Formula One and has also revealed that he may initiate legal action against Piquet Jr and his father for breach of contract.

Mosley believes that he would get a stiff response if he tried to sue the Brazilian driver and his father. "As far as the Piquets are concerned, I expect there will be a counter-suit which would make his eyes water," he said.

The court decision in Briatore's favour centred on arguments that Mosley had allowed himself to get involved as investigator, then judge and jury in the case and had been motivated by a personal vendetta against the Italian. Mosley denied that either was the case and said that he and Briatore had enjoyed a cordial relationship until as recently as the end of last July. (© The Times, London)

- Edward Gorman

Irish Independent
www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/motorsport-mosley-fia-must-keep-door-locked-on-briatore-2002728.html

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Briatore/F1 - Future Steps Jan 7, 2010 8:32:35 GMT

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Post by QPR Report on Jan 7, 2010 8:32:35 GMT

Telegraph

Brian Moore: FIA's staggering incompetence makes it a laughing stock

Even for a sport that seems unable to conduct itself in anything approaching a normal fashion, one in which threat and counter-threat, conspiracy and litigation are routine, the latest staggering event takes some beating.

A French court has overturned the lifetime and five-year bans on Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds, respectively, which were handed out by the FIA, Formula One's ruling body.

In so doing, the court appears to have uncovered the inconvenient facts that not only did the FIA not apply proper procedure, it also did not have the jurisdiction to give the bans in the first place because neither Briatore nor Symonds was a FIA licence holder and therefore subject to FIA rules.

The charges followed an internal investigation by Renault which suggested that Briatore, their former team principal, Nelson Piquet Jnr, their former driver, and Symonds, their former executive director of engineering, conspired for Piquet to crash out of the Singapore Grand Prix deliberately to enhance the race prospects of Renault's lead driver, Fernando Alonso.

When the allegations surfaced from Piquet Jnr, Briatore denied any knowledge of the instruction and threatened legal action against Piquet and his father, the former world champion.

Briatore and Symonds also chose not to contest charges brought by the FIA and both resigned from Renault five days before the World Motor Sport Council sat in judgment on Sept 21 – a strange way of asserting your innocence.

The differential sentences handed down took into account Symonds's acceptance that he took part in the conspiracy and the fact that he told the WMSC that it was to his "eternal regret and shame" that he participated in the conspiracy.

Briatore, despite the evidence against him, then claimed that former FIA president Max Mosley was "blinded by an excessive desire for personal revenge" in pursuing the case and further asserted that Mosley "assumed the roles of complainant, investigator, prosecutor and judge", claiming the case against him was a breach of the "most basic rules of procedure and the rights to a fair trial".

Briatore has now said "the decision handed down restores to me the dignity and freedom that certain people had arbitrarily attempted to deprive me of". He added that it was too early for him to talk about returning to F1. "Let me take a little time to enjoy this moment of happiness after this difficult period," he said.

We therefore have a situation whereby one man who admitted his guilt remains undisciplined and another who, at best, still has not refuted the evidence against him, is now taking the high moral ground because of the complete incompetence of a ruling body.

That the FIA was incompetent was not in dispute before this ludicrous affair. That it did not ensure all people involved in its sport were bound by its rules and was not even able to apply those rules properly now exposes it as a complete joke, probably the worst governing body in sport.

To the extent that Mosley was responsible for this, he deserves to go down as one of the worst administrators of all time. Faced with the most serious charges ever brought, in possession of an admission from Symonds and apparently overwhelming evidence they still cocked it up. Do you laugh or cry?

Mind you, when people are involved with anomalous views like those of Bernie Ecclestone, F1's commercial rights holder, perhaps we should not be surprised.

Four days after the FIA verdict, having sat on the sanctioning body, he advised Briatore to appeal against his own decision, saying: "It was quite harsh on Flavio. I don't think it was necessary but I was on the commission so I'm as guilty as anybody [of passing the sentence]."

After the court verdict Ecclestone said of Briatore: "I don't know if he wants to come back and, if he did, how he would. The biggest problem. . . is if you are arrested for murder, you go to court but you are still branded a murderer, even if you get off."

Ecclestone continued: "If I was president of the FIA, I'd call Flavio and say, 'Let's have a chat. Maybe we were a little bit over the top and sorry that you have had to take the attitude you have taken, and let's try and repair things'."

But Ecclestone also said: "It's not over by a long way. Just because a bloody judge has said what he's said doesn't make any difference... The court said it was wrong, so the FIA can start all over again. . . and it will go on and on."

Er, no Bernie, the court did not say that Briatore had not done the things alleged, it said he wasn't bound by the rules; Briatore never went to court in the proper sense and no judicial body has got him off the substantive charges.

Moreover, there is no room for this over-the-top nonsense. If Briatore did what he was accused of, the FIA's sentence was not excessive, though it still should have been reached and applied properly. If not, it should have not have gone ahead with the prosecution in the first place.

For what reason are the participants in F1 happy to accept this sort of intolerable nonsense? Surely it is time for a wholesale revision of the FIA and its procedures, and to say to Bernie: "Thanks for all you have done, but it's time to go for a long lie in the sun." That or send for the men in white coats.

Alternatively let us have the teams themselves running the sport and an end to the personal fiefdoms of those whose time has come and gone. This not just for the sake of F1, it is for the good of sport as a whole.

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/renault/6942425/Brian-Moore-FIAs-staggering-incompetence-makes-it-a-laughing-stock.html

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Briatore/F1 - Future Steps Jan 7, 2010 13:55:31 GMT

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Post by QPR Report on Jan 7, 2010 13:55:31 GMT

Surrender: Resistance is futile!

Autosport:
Briatore's lawyer: FIA appeal pointless
By Michele Lostia and Pablo Elizalde Thursday, January 7th 2010, 13:11 GMT

Flavio Briatore's lawyer says the FIA has nothing to gain from appealing the verdict of the French court that overturned the Italian's lifetime ban from motorsport.

"First of all we aim at having the verdict enforced. In any case, the FIA has zero chances if it decides to appeal," Philippe Ouakrat was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.

Ouakrat added that the verdict was a disaster for the governing body.

"It's a real cataclysm for them. They prefer to shut up like a clam. We would have liked to find a different solution, but Briatore now has a real boulevard ahead of him."

He added: "The FIA could take a step backwards. Up to now Briatore has accepted to save the team, but he will never accept his name to be linked to a cheat.

"We could ask for compensation for the damages suffered by my client's driver management company. The figures would be a lot more important."

Ouakrat claims the FIA's World Council will be forced to make radical changes to its structure after the verdict.

"The court has practically granted all our requests, but the most serious element is the one that casts a doubt over the FIA World Council's structure itself, which in fact can't exist anymore," he said.

"It is against French and international laws for an organism to be jury, procedural body and investigating body at the same time, with the president of an institution that decides who to investigate, that controls investigators, and that presides the judging organ.

"Now, the FIA can't take disciplinary measures anymore without the risk of seeing them annulled in a civil court."

He insisted Briatore is still considering taking legal action against Nelsinho Piquet.

"We are evaluating the position in relation to the driver. But we believe that Mosley, despite being blinded by the dispute with Briatore, had acted only as president of the FIA, where it's certainly not up to us to decide whether there's still room for him."

www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80764

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