Briatore was Ecclestone's bag man.

Flav and Bernie

In a 90 page written statement presented to the German court trying him for bribery, Bernie Ecclestone revealed, among other things, that it was his friend and business partner Flavio Briatore who deposited the $44 million bribe to Gerhard Gribkowsky, the German banker at the heart of the case against him. Briatore, probably not thrilled to be brought in the middle of this, has yet to comment.

Bernie and Gribkowsky

The case against Ecclestone is laid out in a 256 page indictment and boils down to this payment, which Ecclestone characterizes as blackmail hush money but that German prosecutors maintain was a bribe to help the F1 boss win more favorable deal in the sale of the commercial side of Formula 1.

Ecclestone has commented on "circling vultures" gathering but we say rumors of his demise may have been greatly anticipated. Yes, he is mortal so at some point he'll step away but the likelihood of him being convicted or much less,

Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone

going to jail are slim to none. This is after all a man who has set up his affairs after his divorce so that it's his ex-wife who pays him alimony, to the tune of $100 million a year. How that happened is tied to how Ecclestone managed to pay no taxes on the sale of his shares of F1 and back around to the bribery/blackmail, the German banker threatening to alert UK tax authorities of Ecclestone's control of an offshore trust used in the deal.

Billionaire problems.

(via Independent, The Guardian, ItaliaRacing)

Breaking: Flavio Briatore to join Ferrari in 2012!

Remember all those rumors last year about Flavio's secret visits to Maranello? How about the Paddock visits later in the season?

Well, it seem there was a grand design to it as today, Ferrari spokesman Gaetano Pesce D'Aprile confirmed that the now apparently rehabilitated ex Benetton and Renault team manager will be joining the Scuderia next season.

D'Aprile is quoted in the Gazzetta dello Sport "...Briatore is the only man with the stomach to make difficult choices it takes to win..." Click HERE for the full Ferrari press release..

So, who's lying?

When Nelson Piquet Jr, the only man unsanctioned in the Singapore fiasco, spectacularly missed another opportunity to keep quiet and decided instead to try and cast himself as the hapless victim, he raised an interesting question, one Flavio Briatore's lawyers will be sure to focus on.

In an interview on Brazil's Globo TV, Nelsiño claims he was approached by Briatore and Symonds on the very morning of the Grand Prix with the suggestion....order, to crash his car.

“Foi no próprio dia da corrida, no domingo mesmo, algumas horas antes da prova. ...Eles (Flavio Briatore e Pat Symonds) me chamaram para conversar, não estavam muito confortáveis com a situação Mas precisavam e queriam muito que isso (o acidente) acontecesse. ...”

"It was on the day of the race, the very Sunday, a few hours before the start. They (Briatore-Symonds) called me to talk, they were not comfortable with the situation but wanted very much for it ( the accident) to happen"

Symonds and crucially, Alan Premane the apparent Witness X who's testimony was seen as the nail in Briatore's coffin, claimed that A) it was Piquet's idea and B) Piquet brought it up on the Saturday of the race.

Now, both realities cannot be right, can they?




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Drivers react to the Renault-Piquet affair.

Robert Kubica: "In the end the truly guilty got away with it"

Giancarlo Fisichella: " Immunity for Piquet was not right and the penalty for Briatore excessive"

Jarno Trulli: "Briatore knows little or nothing about strategy, it's weird that he would be the one who paid the highest price"

Mark Webber: "I'm saddened because I cannot imagine another manager I would be as comfortable with"

More supportive of Piquet was Nico Rosberg " In the end Piquet helped the FIA to get rid of people who should not have been in Formula 1."

Kimi Raikkonen, about Piquet: "it's hard to come back after something like that" and about Briatore: "That's the price you pay when you do these things"

Fernando Alonso, not surprising, "It's time to put the scandal behind us"

Oh yeah and Kimi keeps repeating he has a Ferrari contract for 2010 but he also apparently has a Mclaren one in his back pocket.

And more rumors.... USF1 project in trouble, they are looking for Toyota engines which means Kazuki Nakajima....

(mediaset)

Don't tell my mother I work at the FIA...

...she thinks I play piano in a bordello.

The latest FIA verdict has succeeded in the seemingly impossible, turning public opinion even more against the FIA and Formula 1. The only thing the Piquet-Renault verdict put in the open is the desperate need for motor racing to have the courage to not just, as Ari Vatanen has advocated, "open the windows and let fresh air in" but rather seal the FIA's windows and fumigate the place.

Here are, to paraphrase the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld, some "Guessable Unknowns":

Why was Renault allowed to make an undisclosed but "significant contribution to the FIA's road safety campaign" yet allowed to keep the money derived from the points gained in Singapore and the subsequent 4th place in the championship?

CG might confirm but I'm guessing fines and "contributions" get reported in different ways on financial ledgers...

Where is the proof against Briatore? all we have seen is a leaked document which contained no actual proof at all. Proof surely exists, why not release it?

By not releasing evidence the FIA can shield itself from any legal recourse from Briatore, Renault effectively accused Briatore, technically the FIA merely reacted to Renault's admission of guilt on Briatore's behalf.

UPDATE: the Witness X factor, again, the FIA states it was Renault who found him, name is not given....

Why did the FIA leak the dossier to the press?

Curiously ahead of the verdict Mosley declared "there is no way to find out who leaked it"....right, see above.

Members of the World Council have admitted not reading the incriminating evidence ahead of Monday's tribunal yet the hearing took only a couple of hours...

there is an election in a month, you want FIA council member to start making waves now?

If the FIA had known about this incident for a year, why wait until now?

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Briatore is many things but he's a clever man, why would he fire Piquet as he did if he knew they shared a similar secret?

we'll have to wait for either the lawsuit or the book...

And now the "Unguessable Unknowns":

-Why did Ecclestone "turn" on his frienemy Flavio?

-How is it possible for Nelson Piquet Jr. to escape this affair without even a reprimand and now attempt to portray himself as the victim?

-How is it possible nobody else in the Renault squad knew?

-Briatore is famously ignorant of F1 specifics, technical or strategic, yet now we are expected to believe he was the originator of this "brilliant" evil plan?


Why was this "intentional crash" so much worse that any number of other similar ones?

Piquet's audition for is upcoming stuntman career was certainly not the first intentional crash in F1: Shumacher in Monaco, Schumacher in Jerez....even Schumacher in Adelaide. And what about Prost in Japan and the following year, probably the most egregious intentional crash of all, Senna attempted murder of the Frenchman.... Put down to individual action of course, nobody ever heard of a formula 1 team cheating to win, right?

Your comments have been great of late...don't be shy!







And here is the rest of it.

Renault throws Briatore under the bus

In an apparent deal between the FIA and Renault ahead of their world council meeting, Briatore and chief engineer Pay Symonds have ''left'' the team.

Statement from Renault:

"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."

There better be crushing evidence beyond the inconclusive dossier "leaked" least week because this smells of political persecution.

The Axis view? Take a look at the difference between Lewis Hamilton's last good Lesmo and the lap where he crashed. Doesn't take much does it? If a World Champion can make a mistake what's more likely, that Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed the car or that he, as he did many times, just ran out of talent?

Renault was born out of Benetton which was born from Briatore. This is as big a deal as Ron Dennis leaving F1 and perhaps the latest scalp on Max Mosley's wall.

And Piquet? if this is all true, a driver who endangered other drivers, marshals and potentially spectators just because that was the only way he could secure a drive? A minimum of a lifetime ban from racing would be a mild punishment.

UPDATE!: Corriere Della Sera reports that taking over from Briatore at Renault will be Federic Vasseur, up to now team boss at GP2's ART. Anyone want to guess who else is a principal at ART?.... Let me help: Nicholas Todt, son of Mosley's own designated replacement in the upcoming FIA elections, Jean Todt. Pass the stinking bishop.




And here is the rest of it.

What Briatore really said about Piquet: a not so subtle hint.

What, English journos don't stick around to hear The Flav speak in his native language? They are missing half the fun!.

The inexplicably successful with supermodels Renault manager unloaded the following after announcing his lawsuit against the Piquets, translated from Italian:

"From Piquet, who has accused me in the media, I only asked for performance. There was even a clause in his contract. Truth is, he did not perform.
We tried in every way to make Nelsinho feel at ease, we did everything. We found a doctor that would speak to him about his fragility, I even read in the papers that he accused me of keeping a friend of his out of the paddock and called me his executioner.

I kept his friend away at the behest of his father, those two lived together and nobody understood what kind of relationship they had.

I even arranged for him to change apartments, I moved him to one in my building so I could keep an eye on him. These charges are gratuitous."
(mediaset.it)





And here is the rest of it.

Hell Hath No Fury as a Piquet Scorned

Nelson Piquet Jr. did promise revenge on Flavio Briatore and Renault after his recent mid season firing and today, through the Brazilian Network Globo, allegations were made that he had been ordered to crash his car intentionally at last year's SIngapore GP in order to help Alonso who had just pitted before the rest of the field and thus gained a decisive advantage and a win. This in exchange for a contract for the current season.

Allegations are that there is proof of Flavio's and Renault's conspiracy but, frankly, Piquet's driving record is working against him on this one. One is hard pressed to believe Piquet could hold the car on the road consistently much less hold clandestine contract negotiation on the radio during a race. If this does turn out to be a true story ( and there should be plenty of onboard telemetry, radio transmissions and video to make this an open and shut case in about 15 minutes) it is doubly suicidal for the Brazilian, if it's pathetic for a team to be so desperate as to order a driver to crash, it is even more pathetic for that driver to be so desperate as to accept the proposition. Chances are both would be banned for life.





And here is the rest of it.

Formula Chaos

One week before the 2009 season start in Melbourne and Formula 1 is in turmoil. If you have not followed the pre season dramatics let me try and summarize for you:

On track:

No doubt you have heard about Brawn GP's miraculous testing times by now. Bernie Ecclestone himself tipped Button for as a possible world championship contender (poor Rubens...).

While the Brawn is obviously a good car, it must be remembered that this is testing and there are no obligations for cars to pass tech inspection. Further scrutiny of slow corner exit acceleration hints the Brawn could be running below fighting weight. Barring vastly superior mechanical grip, the 5 to 6 mph differential observed cannot be explained otherwise, especially as the Brawn is not getting any help from a KERS system.

The buzzword in this 2009 pre-season has been "diffusers" and there have been accusations, starting with Flavio Briatore, but in the last week also Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali, that some teams have interpreted regulations a bit too loosely.

The teams in question are Brawn, Williams and Toyota. Just yesterday the FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting told Auto Motor und Sport that while no official complaint have been made to date, the diffusers in question were designed exploiting a gray area in the regulations.

Will there be a protest similar to Mclaren's protest of Ferrari's sprung floor? A good possibility, especially as limited testing makes successfully coming up with a copy more complicated.

Other assorted tidbits and rumors:

Mclaren's troubles are in part due to a structural problem with their diffuser which flexed enough to disturb the airflow. They tried a different extractor design but if we see a MP4-24/b soon we'll know this was more than conjecture.

Red Bull is sandbagging.

Off Track:

Briatore may like it but I have read not one single positive comment about the last minute scoring change the FIA dictated this past week amongst fans. Stunning, especially as this change was purportedly the result of a fan poll.
While last year Hamilton was crowned champion with one less win than Massa, with the new system you might have a champion scoring less points than second place. You might also have the season decided very early in the season. Quite a difference coming from two seasons decided in the last few laps. A simple increase in the points awarded to first place would have worked so much better.

The mandated two tier budgets from 2010 on, unlimited but with technical restrictions or 30 million pounds ($42M) with technical innovations allowed, is very much about money but also about a power struggle between the FIA and the constructor's association, FOTA.
FOTA had, amazingly, managed a very united front in its brief existence, the FIA's newfound love for the little guy aims squarely at driving a wedge in the group. It's fairly complicated and appropriately Machiavellian, if you want to delve into it more I highly recommend you read Chris Sylt about F1's commercial rights and then GrandPrix.com's "The danger of getting what you want"

Teams will of course pick the option with allowing technical innovation, and the budget cap? Well there is an obvious solution already used by Red Bull: you run two teams.

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Hello, je suis Jean and I am zee limousine driver...

Jean Alesi driving Flavio Briatore's wedding limo....