Briatore: Banned for life

As expected Briatore came off worst today, the World Motor Sport Council taking a very dim view of the fact that he continued to deny any involvement in the plot, despite the FIA’s and Renault’s investigations concluding that he was involved, albeit the FIA’s less conclusively than Renault’s.

The result is a ban which not only means he cannot attend F1 races again, but GP2 races also (of which he is the founder) and he must decouple himself from the driver management company which looks after Mark Webber, Heikki Kovalainen and others, or the drivers will not receive superlicences, without which they cannot race. His liutenants the Michel brothers will likely take over but it remains to be seen whether the allure of being managed by them without Briatore’s influence behind the scenes is attractive to the drivers.

Pat Symonds was given a five year ban because he admitted his part in it and also wrote a submission to the WMSC that it was to his “eternal regret and shame” that he participated in the conspiracy. He will be 62 at the end of the ban and may not return to the sport at all, on that basis.

Renault had already decided not to contest the charges so it was down to Rey to submit some mitigating pleas. He offered to pay the FIA’s costs of the investigation and to contribute funds to FIA road safety campaigns. It did the trick, with the WMSC deciding not only to suspend the ban for two years, but to activate it only if Renault commits a ‘comparable’ crime again, which is highly unlikely.

Briatore’s scalp was always the main target for the FIA, but Renault’s punishment will still look rather odd in the history books compared to the huge fine McLaren got two years ago for a far less serious crime. The difference between the two in the FIA’s eyes is honesty, in the way the team conducted itself and tackled its defence of the charges. But $100 million is an awful lot of honesty in comparison with the sheer danger involved with Renault’s transgression.

According to the FIA statement, “Renault F1 stated at the meeting that it had conducted a detailed internal investigation, which found that: (i) Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jr. had conspired to cause the crash; and (ii) no other team member was involved in the conspiracy.

“It had accepted, at the earliest practicable opportunity, that it committed the offences with which it was charged and cooperated fully with the FIA’s investigation; 
- it had confirmed that Mr. Briatore and Mr. Symonds were involved in the conspiracy and ensured that they left the team; 
- it apologised unreservedly to the FIA and to the sport for the harm caused by its actions; 
- it committed to paying the costs incurred by the FIA in its investigation; and
- Renault (the parent company, as opposed to Renault F1) committed to making a significant contribution to FIA safety-related projects.”

Nelson Piquet walks away with nothing, despite having been one of the three conspirators, because he was granted immunity at the outset, in exchange for the information and Fernando Alonso is cleared of any involvement.

Piquet’s role in the saga and the way he has been able to walk away without any kind of sanction, despite being the person who actually crashed the car on purpose, will play badly with many in the sport. He issued a statement shortly after the verdict (see separate post).

The FIA will publish the full proceedings in due course so we will discover what evidence Alonso was required to give and what else Symonds said in his written submission.

* Apologies to readers for the site going down this afternoon – sheer simultaneous volume of traffic. We will rectify the problem so it doesn’t happen again.

Senna says he is more hopeful of getting an F1 seat next year as there are more opportunities than there were this year.

With just over two months to go until the inaugural Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, Senna was able to drive the track in a 4×4 road car and get an impression of what kind of track it is and which of the current F1 teams it will favour, bearing in mind that the season finale could be the decisive race in the championship. His answer may surprise you.

Is spoke to him on the phone today and I thought I would share his thoughts with you:

What do you think of the track?
It’s impressive, different from anything seen before. The nearest is probably Shanghai in terms of how well planned and laid out it is, but this place is on another level. Many of the solutions of this track are interesting.

Such as?
Well the pit lane exit, which is a tunnel, for example. That is more than a bit interesting. The pit speed limit line is before it so they will be racing through the tunnel. It’s quite narrow, not as narrow as the exit in Valencia, but still narrow and it exits onto the high speed Turn 3, mind you the cars exiting the pits will be going quite quickly by then. Also something I’ve never seen before is the run off area for Turn 7 is underneath the grandstand!

Any other surprises?
It’s not as flat as I thought it would be. They’ve moved earth around to make some elevation changes. This gives some really nice blind corners. There is a nice mix of corners, some fast corners, the ones around the marina are off camber.

It will be really hard to get a good compromise on the set up, especially the aero balance. It’s the kind of track where the car will feel really oversteery. The majority of the corner are tight, so a good front end will be very important. It has a very long straight, the longest in F1 at 1.2 km with a first gear corner going onto it and at the end of it. To me this looks like a real KERS track. As for set up, you’d go for a medium to high downforce set up, something like you would use at Magny Cours.

Which bits do you like the most?
The first complex of corners, turns 1, 2 and 3 are really nice, fast sweeps. It’s very cool, they are blind corners and the exit of turn 3 is downhill. Then turns 14 and 15 are really cool fast right handed corners, where the wall is quite close.

How is the Marina? Is it more Monaco than Valencia?
Yes it will be like Monaco when the boats are in there, but it’s much more modern than Monaco, the architecture is much more modern. There are some beautiful buildings here, like the Shams Tower, and the hotel which is like a bridge over the circuit.

Will it be more of a Brawn circuit or a Red Bull circuit?
“It’s a KERS circuit!”

What are your chances of a race seat looking like for next year?
” There are more opportunities for next year than there were for this. I’m talking to some teams, the odds are looking better for next year.”