Flavio Briatore has revealed that he quit Formula One to save Renault in the race-fixing scandal.
The Renault team principal walked away as a disgraced outcast after the team decided they would not defend him against race-fixing charges.
Briatore insists he sacrificed himself, saying: ‘I was just trying to save the team. It’s my duty. That’s the reason I’m finished.’
Meanwhile, Patrick Pelata, Renault’s chief operating officer, has admitted the scandal has seriously damaged Renault.
‘The team believes that a mistake has been made, and punishment must follow,’ he said. ‘Flavio Briatore considered himself to be morally responsible and resigned.’
Pushed on the future of Renault, he added: ‘This is not the issue right now. We will take our time before looking at our options.’ Daily Mail
The hearing in Paris will deal with a crash that helped Nelson Piquet Jr.’s teammate, Fernando Alonso, win last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Piquet Jr., who has since left the team, has said he was ordered to crash. The safety car entering the race on the 13th lap helped Alonso, who had just made a pit stop and had a full fuel tank, win the race.
The resignation of Briatore, the 58-year-old team principal, and Symonds means they won’t have to attend the hearing.
Meanwhile, former world champions Jackie Stewart and Damon Hill say F1 needs to clean up its image after a series of scandals. The Associated Press
Austria’s triple champion Niki Lauda, who almost died in a fiery 1976 crash at the Nuerburgring, said the scandal marked a new low and the governing FIA needed to take a tough stance.
“The McLaren spying scandal two years ago was extremely serious but mechanics have always discussed technical data among themselves,” he said, referring to a controversy that cost McLaren a record $100 million fine.
“This, though, is new. The biggest damage ever. Now the FIA must punish Renault heavily to restore credibility in the sport.”
Britain’s Jackie Stewart, another triple champion, agreed.
“There is something fundamentally rotten and wrong at the heart of Formula One,” he said. “Never in my experience has Formula One been in such a mood of self-destruction. Millions of fans are amazed, if not disgusted, at a sport which now goes from crisis to crisis with everyone blaming everyone else.”
Formula One’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, a co-owner with Briatore of Queens Park Rangers, refused to stand up for a man who had been seen by some as his eventual successor.
“It is a pity that Flavio has ended his Formula One career in this way,” the 78-year-old told the Daily Mirror. “You can’t defend him at all. What he did was completely unnecessary. It’s a pity that its happened.” Yahoo! Eurosport
