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Discuss this article (0 Comments)The fall of Flavio
by Edward Gorman on Sunday, 20 September 2009
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How the Formula One billionaire became the greatest cheat in the history of sport.
Flamboyant, rich, football mad, a lover of women with his own way of talking in any language and an apparent Midas touch when it comes to business and sport, Flavio Briatore came crashing to earth last week.
One of the big beasts of the Formula One jungle, it seems his overarching ambition, desperation almost, to repeat his earlier glories of championship and race-winning seasons drove him and his No 2 at the Renault Formula One team, Pat Symonds, the director of engineering, allegedly to commit one of the worst acts of cheating and race-fixing in professional sport.
The Renault Formula One team last week sensationally released a statement saying that they would not dispute claims made against their conduct at last year's Singapore Grand Prix. It was charged that Nelson Piquet Jr, their former driver, was instructed to crash his car on purpose during the race, in a plot designed to propel his teammate Fernando Alonso to victory.
Piquet Jr, who was fired by Renault last month, crashed on the 14th lap of last year's race. Alonso went on to win the race as other cars came in to refuel while the Spanish driver had enough fuel to move ahead of the field.
Governing body FIA began investigating last month, and offered Piquet Jr immunity against prosecution in return for his testimony.
The statement, which said the team "will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA" also revealed that Briatore, the team's managing director, and Symonds had both left the team. It was not clear whether they had been sacked.
Until this debacle, Briatore, 59, could be counted among the most successful and influential figures in Formula One. He had presided over two world championships for Michael Schumacher during his time as team principal at Benetton in the mid-1990s, then he repeated the feat at Renault, where Fernando Alonso won drivers' titles in 2005 and 2006.
The Italian with a mop of long grey hair, who started out as a skiing instructor, had become a big player at the head of one of the sport's biggest teams. As the years rolled by, Briatore had survived to become a close associate of Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire Formula One promoter with whom he regularly played poker and with whom he is a part-owner of Queens Park Rangers football club.
In recent years, Briatore had developed strong convictions on how the sport could be developed and improved. He played a prominent role in the Formula One Teams Association (Fota) and he was regarded as someone who saw himself eventually running the show, in the role of an Ecclestone. (Dangerous ambitions, those, when the man himself is still very much in charge.) In the crisis over a threatened breakaway by the teams from the FIA this season, Briatore was a leading light and his conduct during that difficult time did not endear him to either Ecclestone or Max Mosley, the president of the governing body.
Briatore was successful, but it would be hard to argue that he was widely respected or loved. Many saw potential difficulties because he tried to run the Renault team and, at the same time, owned a company that managed several drivers. And there was a ruthlessness about him that did not endear him to the wider paddock. No better example of this was his unwise and distasteful personal attack on Nelson Piquet Jr, his former driver, who sparked the scandal that brought him down, when Briatore tried to dismiss the allegations against him at the Italian Grand Prix at the weekend.
Like many in Formula One, which is as much a business as a sport, it would be hard to argue that Briatore is passionate about it. Football is a religion for him and, since buying into QPR two years ago, his ham-fisted attempts to run that club have occupied his mind and his dreams probably more than any of his problems in motorsport. Rather, he is regarded as a highly competitive deal-maker who found success in business and sport by being clever in whom he employed and letting them get on with it without interfering too much.
How he did it
The website Racefax.com last week published what it said was a dossier resulting from the FIA investigation into Renault's role in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. These are extracts from the website's evidence.
Piquet's allegations
On August 3, Piquet issued a statement confirming he had been sacked by Renault.
On July 26, Piquet's father, Nelson Sr, told the FIA that his son wanted to make a statement regarding the Singapore Grand Prix crash.
Five days before Piquet announced he had been released, he provided the FIA with a signed statement in which he alleged:
• He was asked by [the team principal Flavio] Briatore and team technical director Pat Symonds "to deliberately crash my car" in Singapore to benefit [teammate Fernando] Alonso.
• Symonds, "in the presence of Mr Briatore, asked me if I would be willing to sacrifice my race for the team by ‘causing a safety car'".
• He "agreed to this proposal and caused my car to hit a wall and crash during lap 13/14 of the race".
• That after meeting with Briatore and Symonds, the latter "took me aside to a quiet corner and, using a map, pointed me to the exact corner of the track where I should crash", because "it did not have any cranes that would allow a damaged car to be swiftly lifted off the track, nor did it have any side entrances to the track" which would allow a damaged car to be rolled off the track. Crashing where Symonds indicated "would thus necessitate the deployment of a safety car".
• Symonds told Piquet that the strategy to be employed for Alonso, who would start 15th, would have him very light on fuel, and that Alonso would thus pit before the Piquet crash while others would not, thereby allowing Alonso to gain track position.
• That he agreed to crash because he thought it would help him keep his drive, though no promises were made.
• He repeatedly asked the team to confirm the lap he was on, "which I would not normally do".
• "Mr Briatore discreetly said ‘thank you' after the end of the race" but the deliberate crash was not discussed with him by anyone after the initial meeting and agreement.
On August 17, Piquet provided the FIA with a supplemental statement. In it, the driver explained how he had crashed.
"After ensuring I was on the designated lap of the race, I deliberately lost control of my car" on the exit to turn 17, the second part of a right-left chicane. "I did this by pressing hard and early on the throttle. As I felt the back end of the car drifting out, I continued to press hard on the throttle, in the knowledge that this would lead to my car making heavy contact with the concrete wall..."
In both his statements, Piquet acknowledged that he had "a duty... to ensure the fairness and legitimacy" of the Formula One championship.
The website Racefax.com last week published what it said was a dossier resulting from the FIA investigation into Renault's role in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. These are extracts from the website's evidence.
Piquet's allegations
On August 3, Piquet issued a statement confirming he had been sacked by Renault.
On July 26, Piquet's father, Nelson Sr, told the FIA that his son wanted to make a statement regarding the Singapore Grand Prix crash.
Five days before Piquet announced he had been released, he provided the FIA with a signed statement in which he alleged:
• He was asked by [the team principal Flavio] Briatore and team technical director Pat Symonds "to deliberately crash my car" in Singapore to benefit [teammate Fernando] Alonso.
• Symonds, "in the presence of Mr Briatore, asked me if I would be willing to sacrifice my race for the team by ‘causing a safety car'".
• He "agreed to this proposal and caused my car to hit a wall and crash during lap 13/14 of the race".
• That after meeting with Briatore and Symonds, the latter "took me aside to a quiet corner and, using a map, pointed me to the exact corner of the track where I should crash", because "it did not have any cranes that would allow a damaged car to be swiftly lifted off the track, nor did it have any side entrances to the track" which would allow a damaged car to be rolled off the track. Crashing where Symonds indicated "would thus necessitate the deployment of a safety car".
• Symonds told Piquet that the strategy to be employed for Alonso, who would start 15th, would have him very light on fuel, and that Alonso would thus pit before the Piquet crash while others would not, thereby allowing Alonso to gain track position.
• That he agreed to crash because he thought it would help him keep his drive, though no promises were made.
• He repeatedly asked the team to confirm the lap he was on, "which I would not normally do".
• "Mr Briatore discreetly said ‘thank you' after the end of the race" but the deliberate crash was not discussed with him by anyone after the initial meeting and agreement.
On August 17, Piquet provided the FIA with a supplemental statement. In it, the driver explained how he had crashed.
"After ensuring I was on the designated lap of the race, I deliberately lost control of my car" on the exit to turn 17, the second part of a right-left chicane. "I did this by pressing hard and early on the throttle. As I felt the back end of the car drifting out, I continued to press hard on the throttle, in the knowledge that this would lead to my car making heavy contact with the concrete wall..."
In both his statements, Piquet acknowledged that he had "a duty... to ensure the fairness and legitimacy" of the Formula One championship.
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