for those of you who may be caught a little off guard here, Flavio Briatore was accused of asking Nelsinho Piquet to crash his Renault formula one car deliberately. The FIA then proceeded to ban Flavio Briatore for his life. Briatore appealed and his appeal was found correct and sustained and the lifeban dissolved.

So now the rumour is that he has agreed to stay off the F1 circuits till 2013 when he will return to the stage of formula one as a commercial director. The deal will ofcourse save the FIA a lot of legal formalities and hurdles but will put into dark the justice that its supposed to have done for the millions of formula one fans around the world.

The Italian Briatore was found to be guilty by Renault also and not only the FIA, so how much is this deal justified ? Our view is that its not, its another place where money and power have ruled over good sense and sportsmanship. In the past few years numerous cheating scandals have emerged with the FIA failing to take concrete action each time and the one time it did was in the case of Briatore and now even that action is reversed.

There is an interesting perspective on the whole thing by Tom Cary, all the parties involved , Pat Symonds, Flavio Briatore, Nelsinho Piquet and the FIA itself will be going scot free from this incident.

It seems the crashgate will be just like the Stepneygate scandal, just fodder for the media and no concrete results of the scandal being exposed.

People who were disgusted by Flavio Briatore’s alleged bullying of Nelsinho Piquet were left more disgusted when a Paris Court removed the ban placed on Flavio Briatore. The ban was a lifetime ban which was to ensure that Flavio could not be associated with formula one ever again in any form.

The court contended as Briatore and Pat Symonds were not license holders, they were not liable to be banned by the Formula One governing authority, only drivers and teams could be banned. Third party like Symonds and Briatore couldnt.

The TGI court also questioned Max Mosely’s intentions :

“The decision of the World Council was presided over by the FIA president, who was well known to be in conflict with Briatore, with Mr Mosley having played a leading role in launching the enquiry and its investigation in violation of the principle of separation of the power of the bodies.

“The decision of the FIA WMSC is not annulled but declared irregular, and rendered without effect in its provisions against Mr Briatore and Mr Symonds.”

The FIA was quick to note its legal options :

“The FIA notes the decision of the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris in relation to Mr Briatore and Mr Symonds.

“The Court has rejected the claims for damages made by Mr Flavio Briatore and Mr Symonds and their claim for an annulment of the FIA’s decision.

“In particular, the court did not examine the facts and has not reversed the FIA’s finding that both Briatore and Symonds conspired to cause an intentional crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

“However, the court did question the FIA’s authority to impose bans upon Mr Briatore and Mr Symonds for procedural reasons and because they are not FIA licence holders and, according to the court, are therefore not subject to any FIA rules.

“The FIA’s ability to exclude those who intentionally put others’ lives at risk has never before been put into doubt and the FIA is carefully considering its appeal options on this point.

“The court’s decision is not enforceable until the FIA’s appeal options have been exhausted. Until then, the World Motor Sport Council’s decision continues to apply.

“In addition, the FIA intends to consider appropriate actions to ensure that no persons who would engage, or who have engaged, in such dangerous activities, or acts of intentional cheating, will be allowed to participate in Formula One in the future.”

Last week was dramatic as far as formula one controversies go, Renault got a 2 year suspended ban from formula one. Pat Symonds got a 5 year ban from formula one and flamboyant Flavio Briatore got a lifetime ban from the sport of formula one. But there were 2 peculiarities.

First one being the suspended sentence for Renault, kind of reminds on McLaren punishments during the spygate. Even over there the team pleaded ignorance to the action of 1-2 individuals in the company and even in this case the Renault formula one team pleaded the same to Briatore’s and Symond’s actions. While these may seem like valid defences in the sense that they can let you off the hook, its quite safe to say that the defences though plausible seem like long shots.

So this also brings us to the questions whether Nelsinho piquet deserved to be banned alongwith the Renault F1 team and the 2 officials. Now, there are 2 sides to the debate, 1st is the legal one. Nelsinho Piquet got immunity from the FIA for deposing in the case, sort of a whistleblower to the whole incident. Most people agree that whistleblowers deserve amnesty. But was Nelsinho really a whistleblower, he was happy crashing into walls as long as he was getting paid and his seat was secured at the Renault F1 team , when he saw that Flavio was probably going to fire him anyway, he decides to come clean and become the whistleblower. As a fan I feel that Nelsinho Piquet alongwith Renault have brought F1 into a lot of disrepute. One often gives the Ferrari team orders example for F1 controversies, but Renault took it to a new level by telling Nelsinho to crash and that too at a specific point which would cause a longer safety car period.

They not only together cheated the fans, the game , but they also cheated themselves. Its a shame that Nelsinho wasnt banned, his stay is bad for the sport and its reputation. Needless to say after the scandal, formula one will never be the same again.

Furthermore Flavio Briatore has been banished from the sport of formula one forever. Pat Symonds got a similar punishment but with a lesser timeframe of only 5 years.

But the decision has not went down well with fans. Most believe that the penalty given to the Renault formula one team is too light. Most notably Brit fans and their press who were OK with the concept of a suspended sentence for the McLaren team when they were punished suddenly disagree with the concept of suspended bans.

Anyway, it seems that formula one is losing its credibility and sheen, hawks like Flavio dont deserve to be in the sport of formula one. They cheat fans and fix races which is unacceptable to all.

The World Motor Sport Council finds that Renault F1 team members Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jr. conspired to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. The World Motor Sport Council therefore finds Renault F1, which, under article 123 of the International Sporting Code, is responsible for the actions of its employees, in breach of Articles 151(c) and point 2(c) of Chapter IV of Appendix L of the Code, and Articles 3.2, 30.3 and/or 39.1 of the Formula One Sporting Regulations.

The World Motor Sport Council considers Renault F1’s breaches relating to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to be of unparalleled severity. Renault F1’s breaches not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself. The World Motor Sport Council considers that offences of this severity merit permanent disqualification from the FIA Formula One World Championship. However, having regard to the points in mitigation mentioned above and in particular the steps taken by Renault F1 to identify and address the failings within its team and condemn the actions of the individuals involved, the WMSC has decided to suspend Renault F1’s disqualification until the end of the 2011 season. The World Motor Sport Council will only activate this disqualification if Renault F1 is found guilty of a comparable breach during that time.

In what will come as a big shocker to loyal Renault F1 fans, the team today made public a statement that Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore have left the F1 outfit. Moreover they will not dispute the charges pit against them by the Piquets that Nelsinho Piquet was asked to crash his F1 car by Flavio Briatore at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

It also wishes to state that its managing director, Flavio Briatore and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team.

Before attending the hearing before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 21 September 2009, the team will not make any further comment.

In what comes as an apparent admission of guilt, the Renault formula one team are probably hoping for leniency from the WMSC.

Lewis Hamilton drove a good race and won the German Grand Prix 2008. He was followed by Nelson Piquet jr and Felipe Massa for 2nd and 3rd places in Renault and Ferrari F1 respectively. You all must have read the different race reviews by now, so lets just get to the reactions :

Felipe Massa:

“It was a difficult race. Right from the beginning, Hamilton’s pace seemed unbeatable and I understood that it would be very hard to beat him. I never had good grip and, in the final stages, I also had brake problems and was not even able to attack Piquet, whom I congratulate on the first podium of his career. We must try and understand why, this weekend, we have not been a match for our rivals. They have definitely improved, but I think this was more a case of us having taken a step backwards. However, we are still confident: we have the ability to get out of this situation, right from the next race.”

Kimi Raikkonen:

“This was definitely not the kind of race we had been hoping for. We have struggled all weekend and we have to try and understand why. Usually, our race pace is always good, but today that was not the case, because I almost always suffered with a lack of grip: only in the final stages did the situation improve a little bit, but it was never enough to be competitive. We have a test in Jerez, where we will try and improve the car so as to arrive in Budapest in better shape. This is definitely not a crisis, but we have to study carefully the handling of the car to understand if we have taken the right road in terms of development.”

Lewis Hamilton

“I nailed it this afternoon: when the team told me I had to build a 23-second gap in just seven laps, I knew I had to drive over the limit – and I did. But I knew we had the best car this weekend and felt comfortable pushing hard to make up the gap. In the final stint, I had to work for today’s win – when the Safety Car came out, I questioned whether I should pit but I trusted the team to make the best decision on strategy. It didn’t quite work out – but I knew we had the pace in the car to keep pushing and want to say a big thank-you to Heikki, who realised I was quicker. I was able to slipstream past Felipe and then thought my work was done; then I had to do it all again to get past Nelson. But I made a couple of textbook moves to get past them both. Everybody in this team has worked so hard to make this victory happen. We mustn’t grow complacent but must feel assured that our efforts are being rewarded. We couldn’t have asked for more today.”

Photo : Copyright Ferrari Media

It was a different story for Lewis Hamilton though, his car was faster than Felipe’s Ferrari by a good margin. Robert Kubica qualified second for the BMW team while Lewis’s teammate will start right behind Lewis on the grid in the race as he qualified in third place.

Toyota did well to get 6th and 9th place for Trulli and Glock respectively. It was a good session for them.

Force India was as expected towards the bottom, Fisichella managed to beat a Torro Rosso alongwith 2 Super Aguris, and got 17th place.

1. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.714

2. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber 1:26.869

3. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.079

4. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 1:27.178

5. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber 1:27.236

6. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 1:28.527

7. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 1:28.687

8. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull-Renault 1:29.041

9. Timo Glock Germany Toyota 1:29.593

10. Sebastian Vettel Germany Toro Rosso-Ferrari No Time

11. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Honda 1:26.173

12. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault 1:26.188

13. Jenson Button Britain Honda 1:26.259

14. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota 1:26.413

15. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault No Time

16. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari No Time

17. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Ferrari 1:27.207

18. Sebastien Bourdais France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:27.446

19. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Ferrari 1:27.859

20. Takuma Sato Japan Super Aguri-Honda 1:28.208

21. Nelson Piquet Brazil Renault 1:28.330

22. Anthony Davidson Super Super Aguri-Honda 1:29.059

This just in : Fernando Alonso has asked that the above car be used by Nelsinho Picquet in order for him to be above his teammate. Also if this is not possible he has recommended 1 octane petrol for the Brazilian rookie, or if not that then he has demanded that Nelsinho Picquet be made to drive in first gear with a hand tied behind his back in order to even out things.
All this is after the Lewis Hamilton incident who did manage to kick some of his butt in the 2007 season. It is suspected that Fernando Alonso might be suffering from rookie-phobia (fear of rookies as your teammate)