You didn't actually think we'd heard the last of Crashgate, did you? The scandal that rocked the Formula One racing world last season and well into the post-season involved the Renault F1 team, its driver Nelson Piquet, Jr. and its top executives Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds.
For allegedly directing Piquet to crash on purpose during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, thereby handing the advantage to teammate Fernando Alonso, Briatore and Symonds were banned – permanently and temporarily, respectively – from the sport. Briatore eventually had the sentence overturned in French courts, and whistleblower/culprit Piquet found nothing but cold shoulders when it came time to find a new race seat.
As part of the ongoing debacle, the Renault team under Briatore's direction issued a statement in September 2009 claiming that Piquet's assertions were entirely fabricated. As a result, according to ESPN, Piquet and his three-time World Champion father are now suing the disavowed Briatore for slander, with punitive damages sought to the tune of £200,000 (about $300k). Considering how many millions the Piquet and Briatore estates must be worth, the six-figure sum seems like a drop in the bucket, but that's still more than we could say for Nelsinho's flash-in-the-pan career in F1 that didn't even last two seasons.
[Source: ESPN]
For allegedly directing Piquet to crash on purpose during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, thereby handing the advantage to teammate Fernando Alonso, Briatore and Symonds were banned – permanently and temporarily, respectively – from the sport. Briatore eventually had the sentence overturned in French courts, and whistleblower/culprit Piquet found nothing but cold shoulders when it came time to find a new race seat.
As part of the ongoing debacle, the Renault team under Briatore's direction issued a statement in September 2009 claiming that Piquet's assertions were entirely fabricated. As a result, according to ESPN, Piquet and his three-time World Champion father are now suing the disavowed Briatore for slander, with punitive damages sought to the tune of £200,000 (about $300k). Considering how many millions the Piquet and Briatore estates must be worth, the six-figure sum seems like a drop in the bucket, but that's still more than we could say for Nelsinho's flash-in-the-pan career in F1 that didn't even last two seasons.
[Source: ESPN]
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