BREAKING: Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds leave Renault F1
by Jonathon Ramsey on Sep 16th 2009 at 10:15AM 
Flavio Briatore might have wished that he had been a little kinder to client and former Renault F1 driver Nelson Piquet. After Piquet was sacked for non-performance following the Hungarian Grand Prix this year, he sought revenge by saying that Briatore and team engineering director Pat Symonds instructed him to crash during last year's Singapore GP. The crash, done correctly, would cause the safety car to come out, and that would give teammate Fernando Alonso the best chance of winning the race.
Piquet crashed, the safety car came out, and Alonso won the race. It's been reported that at least one driver thought the crash was suspect, and Williams' Patrick Head said Piquet confessed to a journalist after the race that he crashed on purpose. Piquet's motivation was to keep his Renault seat for 2009. Not having done that, he's got little left to lose... well, other than his career or the chance that any other team will hire him...
Based on evidence gathered, the FIA called Renault to account for its actions during the Singapore GP to the World Motorsport Council. The team hadn't been found guilty, but leaks indicated that the affair was looking suspect. Perhaps hoping to save the team from suffering over the actions of just two men, Briatore and Symonds have departed in what looks remarkably like a Ron Dennis move after McLaren's Australian GP debacle. Renault's only statement on the matter, before Monday's WSMC meeting, said that "The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix." For all kinds of reasons, happy and tragic, on the track and off, this has been the most intriguing F1 season in years.
[Source: F1 Live | Image Source: Mark Thompson/Getty]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
meatbag 10:23AM (9/16/2009)
what ever happened to good clean racing. NASCAR and F1 are like reality TV. sad really
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cFoo 11:36AM (9/16/2009)
There's no such thing as clean racing. It's the same as every other professional sports. They will cheat until they're caught, then the surviving competitors/teams will find other ways to cheat.
Paul 3:34PM (9/16/2009)
Drama is inherent to the sport.
But really, Piquet just ruined his career. He may have screwed Briatore -- who is worth hundreds of millions -- but Piquet is more guilty of cheating than anyone. He's the one that deliberately crashed his car, thus manipulating the race. No one in F1 will ever hire him, LeMans would be a huge long-shot and I don't see anyone who would let this fool into their car, except maybe Daddy.
Short of a taxi, I think Piquet's driving career is finito.
Nicolas 10:24AM (9/16/2009)
Maybe with the newfound time off Flavio can work on his tan..
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leitplanke 10:30AM (9/16/2009)
finally briatore is gone!
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TK 10:35AM (9/16/2009)
What!!!??? Flav gone. F1 will survive without him, but he made F1 more interesting and more of the spectacle. He brought numerous models around the paddock, which is always good, but he also told people how it was and was blunt and honest (apparently not so here, though I don't blame him for initially trying to save his job).
I don't condone this sacrifice a car to win a race situation, but this is not the first time situations like this have happened. That's how F1 is, how competitive it is. Yes they should be fined up the a**, but it shouldn't be brought to light in the public. It provides bad press for Renault and might make Renault be the next manufacturer to quite F1 (which I hope they don't). Ferrari has done this sort of thing before and the FIA didn't blink an eye. The worst part of the ordeal is that this happened a full year ago! Its done, over with, they didn't win the championship anyways. The FIA really needs a full overhaul since the teams decided to stay with the FIA championship. New people and unbiased, fair, straight forward rules that are enacted quickly and efficiently.
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Weaksauce 1:16PM (9/16/2009)
You need to be reminded that the championship was decided by ONE POINT.
Who knows who would have won if they didn't fix this race.
Sorry, I'm a Massa fan and one of my friends is a Hamilton fan.
camaroz1985 2:07PM (9/16/2009)
Hamilton finished 3rd, Massa finished out of the points in 12th. Wouldn't have given Massa the championship sorry.
Giovane 8:14PM (9/17/2009)
Maybe Massa wouldnt have finished 12th if there was no safety car in the race.. It's hard to guess what would have happened if something in the past changed..
ntcougar7 10:48AM (9/16/2009)
most people that i know,wont miss him...
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Polly Prissy Pants 10:57AM (9/16/2009)
That guy needs to lay off the carrots.
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Adrien 11:18AM (9/16/2009)
A turning point for F1! It's incredible how key figures of a given industry can be toppled with a little push of the one person more powerful than them. But then again I guess it's also that Flavio managed not to be caught for the longest time, and finally got caught.
That, along with the new rules coming to F1 (that should underline strategy on the track instead of strategy in the pitlane), the new and morphing teams, the new faces, all that can only be good for F1.
It's the end of a system, but one could say it's dying because the environment all around it had already changed too much to allow it to survive.
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larry raines 11:27AM (9/16/2009)
all these guys are dirty. Remember when Michael parked it at Monaco, at the corner right past the swimming pool? Wonder if that was ordered - was Pat Simmons his engineer at that time?
TK 11:39AM (9/16/2009)
No, Pat Symonds was not Schumacher's engineer when he was at Ferrari. He was Michael's engineer only when Michael was at Bennetton.
Brad 2:45PM (9/16/2009)
I think Chris Dyer was Michael's engineer at the time of the Monaco incident.
bee1000 4:31PM (9/16/2009)
I'm pretty sure Michael did that all by himself.
Kyle 11:21AM (9/16/2009)
It'll be interesting to find out of anyone at Renault knew or if was just the two conspirators. I feel bad for Grosjean who finally gets a drive for a formula 1 team but is soon swept up in the mess. Alonso clearly looks to have an out with a well placed team.
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kurt 11:25AM (9/16/2009)
Well its now obvious that it was an intentional crash ordered from the paddock, the real question now is did Alonso know about it.
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amg 12:13PM (9/16/2009)
So how do we get rid of Bernie?
Is Max gone yet?
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Shiftright 12:37PM (9/16/2009)
Wait, wasn't this guy married to Heidi Klum at some point? And fathered one of her children? I don't care how sleazy he is in F1, any dude that looks like him and can tag Heidi is a hero. Oh wait, he's stupidly wealthy, huh?...Never mind...
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