Briatore and Symonds out !!

[Andrew Evans]

Renault has announced that team boss Flavio Briatore and engineering chief Pat Symonds have parted company with the team and that it will "not dispute" the allegations of race-fixing when it appears before the World Motor Sport Council next week.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78668

 

[Martin Bulgin]

Guilty as charged, just heard it myself, I thought Piquet was telling the truth, I could see no reason to lie especially when the telemetary showed he lifted everytime on that corner except the lap he crashed.

 

[Ryan Callan]

Wooooow. This could mean another new entry next season if they are thrown out of F1.

 

[Renato Preti]

finally! great news for F1, nobody will miss Briatore!

 

[Renato Preti]

Wooooow. This could mean another new entry next season if they are thrown out of F1.

I dont think Renault will be punished as they fire them.

 

[Andrew Evans]

i think they will - as they hold the team accountable.... i guess we'll find out monday... but this probably means bye bye renault.... :wave:

 

[David Buxton]

This would make a great forum game!

Fair play to Piquet for having the guts to come forward in the first place! Afteral, not many teams will employ a "grass"

 

[Renato Preti]

i think they will - as they hold the team accountable.... i guess we'll find out monday... but this probably means bye bye renault.... :wave:

I read on a newspaper that it was a deal, Renault fire them and then they will not be kicked out from F1, probably they will face only a $$$ charge, like Mclaren a few years ago.

 

[Andrew Evans]

yea, sounds reasonable... but what i meant is renault might decide to withdraw from f1 on the back of this....

 

[Trebor901]

Lol bye bye pumpkin head

 

[Mark Guy]

yea, sounds reasonable... but what i meant is renault might decide to withdraw from f1 on the back of this....

I would not be surprised if they do withdraw.

 

[Patrick van Driel]

I never liked that Briatore anyway,that full eaten blownup face says enough.
To bad for Renault cuz they are a great team.
Punishment will be heavy if guilty.

 

[Xosé Estrada]

I also think Renault will with withdraw and then we will have Sauber Ferrari in...

 

[Ben Tusting]

I thought Sauber/ BMW were on the grid already , down to FIA wanting to have 28 cars on the grid

 

[Ryan Callan]

They're petitioning the other teams for that Ben, it is not certain....

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I wonder how the FIA will view the accusations against Alonso now if Renault are basically saying "Yep, it's a fair cop, Piquet's right"

 

[Ryan Callan]

Couple of quotes from BBC:

The FIA could still impose sanctions if Renault are found guilty, including excluding the team from the championship, although that must be considered unlikely given the two people Piquet said were responsible have now left the team.

It remains to be seen whether this latest controversy, and the departure of Briatore and Symonds, will affect Renault's decision to stay in Formula 1. Briatore had denied speculation that the French team's future was under threat and the team have signed a new Concorde Agreement to stay in F1 until 2012.

But this latest controversy, coupled with a decline in cars sales, could yet have repercussions for the staff of around 700, who are are employed at the team's headquarters in Enstone, in Oxfordshire, and Viry-Chatillon in Paris.

 

[Richard Kay]

Big news indeed.

I don't think they can prove Alonso was involved and personally I don't think he was. There is genuine surprise in his words to Flav post race about the timing of the safety car. It would have been quite easy to convince him to run light considering his pace in practice. All the safety car then does is wipe out the qualifying problem with the fuel pump abd puts him at the head of the field where he probably would have qualified.

Still think there is more to run on this though, the criminal charges filed against Piquet re: Blackmail for one.

 

[Ryan Callan]

Everyone's leaving their jobs today lol. Briatore, Symonds, Brady, O'Sullivan, Kenyon......

 

[Andrew Evans]

celebrity trends man; it was dying yesterday.... :nod: