Comments on: Briatore and Symonds quit to save Renault F1 team

By: jim williams

jim williams — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:49:37 +0000

It is not just naive neglectful of the sport to say that ‘there is no reason for the hearing to take place now’. What James is completely missing – no doubt because he has been an ‘insider’ for many years and has lost perspective on how the sport looks to the outside – is the way that this looks to the outside world. F1 appears irretrievably mired in corruption now – we have had, in the past few years, Spygate, and much more minor things like Hamilton lying to officials, and now this race-fixing disaster. To suggest, with the statement that ‘the hearing doesn’t need to take place now’, because of Briatore/Symonds resigning is – sorry, but hugely un-self-aware about what has happened. The actual consequences against renault – which I suspect will be very major, if not on the ‘excluding renault from F1′ scale – will show this. You don’t get major consequences at a hearing if ‘the hearing does not need to take place’!

Also, the statement from James here is, sadly, naive in respect of the question marks over Alonso’s involvement or otherwise. Nearly all commentators are wondering if it is possible for Alonso not to have know about the plot – and the key point here is that even if he didn’t know directly about it, but, understandably, got suspicious about the way thigns turned out and didn’t act, that is very damning about him as individual. It may not be palatable for some in the media, who have spent years creating icons out of drivers like Alonso or Shumacher, to have to consider that the people they have built up may not be worthy of that level of respect, but when information suggests this is a possibility, they have to be looked at in a level-headed way. Simply to ignore the fact, as James does here, that there are serious questions hanging around Alonso now, is unfortunately a neglectful representation of the scenario. Again, Alonso has been called to appear before the hearing I understand – a reflection of the fact that suspicions and a certain amount of incredulity are hanging around him and ‘not knowing’.

By: James Allen

James Allen — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:41:39 +0000

Yes, this looks like preparing the ground for the licence system I was talking about in a recent post. If they quit they would still be liable to lse their licences under a separate disciplinary hearing. It’s got to be the way to go.

By: knoxploration

knoxploration — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:04:34 +0000

James: Care to comment on the assertion by Planet-F1 that the WMSC currently have no power to take any kind of formal action against either Symonds or Briatore:

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5566622,00.html

If the WMSC really can’t punish either man in any way because they’d preemptively resigned from the team (and their resignations hence allow them to jump straight into other jobs in F1, presuming they can find somebody willing to employ them) – well, then the rules very definitely need changing.

Seems to me that perhaps their resignations were nothing more than an attempt to save their own skins once they realized they’d been well and truly cornered.

By: Kiwi

Kiwi — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:59:44 +0000

Deliberate crashing yes, team-instructed crashing, not too sure:

Prost-Senna
Senna-Prost
Schumacher-Hill (Flavio-Pat at the helm!)
Schumacher-Villeneuve (Flavio-Pat at the helm!)
Schumacher alone, rascasse
and probably many others

By: Hugo

Hugo — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:54:18 +0000

I agree,what I meant was that Renault have won many races,it was not the case that they fixed the race because they knew they were never again going to have a chance to win a GP.

By: Theothercoldone

Theothercoldone — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:05:56 +0000

This I would most definitely not expect from the likes of Arrows or Minardi, or the other also rans at the back. I think those teams sense of honour, and pride at being there at all would forbade this kind of thing.

By: Ian Curtis

Ian Curtis — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:17:51 +0000

Hi James,

Dunno how you’re fixed for web hosting etc.. but if you need any gratis, just contact me my email address.
And no, i won’t stalk you or try and get invited to F1 events.. i’m too bloody busy to get to a race these days!
Just thought if you were paying for hosting.. you needn’t.

Regards,
Steve

By: rpaco

rpaco — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:29:29 +0000

Until we see who is going to be running things now we will reserve judgment on who needs punishing

By: rpaco

rpaco — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:18:29 +0000

“I do find it funny that Alonso again is in the middle,and he says again he new nothing what so ever of the plan….”

Yeah so does every one else. The strategy was useless without the crash. Alonso is not stupid, he would have licked off at a stupid strategy if it had not been explained to him.

By: rpaco

rpaco — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:14:38 +0000

“Had it come to light that Di Montezemolo or Mateshitz had conpsired with Domenicali or Horner respectively to do the same, would we be seeing their forced resignations today?”
I should hope so, as I said above or below (I’ve lost track of the thread now) in my response:
“Well James if the “Characters and Leaders” in F1 turn out to be cheats, they have to go, no matter who they are, or how glorious and stain free their past.”

The fact that they have coughed does not mean they didn’t do it and that no punishment is deserved. Part of the punishment is knowing and living with the fact that they have screwed up the lives of all the blokes (and blokesses) in the team, Hopefully that will mean something painful to them, well at least Pat, there is little hope of Flav thinking of others.