The duel between Flavio Briatore and the FIA is undoubtedly the hot soap opera of 2010, one with seemingly no end in sight. How about a little sportsmanship, gentlemen?
The one they used to call ‘Tribüla’ was no longer welcome inside F1 paddocks after former FIA president Max Mosley managed to kick him out with a lifetime ban from motorsport.
Max should have known better, as Flavio has more than one trick up his sleeve. The latter made an appeal to the French Tribune de Haute Instance and won. The FIA’s decision was recently overturned.
The question now is: who on Earth will want to hire Briatore if he stubbornly plans on resuming his F1 career?
While he did help Benetton and Renault write some of the sport’s most storied chapters, he was also in the middle of a number of controversies, including the dismissal of Roberto Moreno in 1991, Benetton’s illegal traction control in 1994, the modified fuel filling system in the same year, the stolen computer data scandal, the exclusion of Renault following the mass damper suspension controversy, and so on.
Flavio has become a flying hot potato no one wants to catch for fear of finding themselves in the firing line of FIA officials.
The thing is, Briatore has never been passionate about auto racing. For him, it’s all show business and nothing more. In fact, he was busy implementing a Benetton retailer network across the United States when Luciano Benetton asked him to oversee his F1 racing team. Flavio went from selling wool sweaters to heading an F1 crew in just a few hours.
A former Renault executive once told me this about Briatore: "He’s an excellent boss, but a stingy one. He only allows one mistake. The second time you screw up, you’re shown the door."
It goes without saying that his managerial style didn’t get unanimous approval. The fact that Briatore was both team director and driver manager didn’t sit well with many. He always seemed to be involved in some conflict of interest, but people stayed mum because they were scared of his possible retaliation.
After he reportedly ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Mosley and the FIA saw a golden opportunity to forcibly get rid of the hotheaded Italian. However, the decision of the French court complicates the matter for the sport’s governing body, which desperately wants to hand a severe punishment to a man guilty of cheating and manipulation during a Grand Prix.
There is no light at the end of this tunnel yet, unfortunately. Rest assured that very few people want to see Flavio Briatore haunt the F1 paddocks anytime soon…
The one they used to call ‘Tribüla’ was no longer welcome inside F1 paddocks after former FIA president Max Mosley managed to kick him out with a lifetime ban from motorsport.
Max should have known better, as Flavio has more than one trick up his sleeve. The latter made an appeal to the French Tribune de Haute Instance and won. The FIA’s decision was recently overturned.
The question now is: who on Earth will want to hire Briatore if he stubbornly plans on resuming his F1 career?
While he did help Benetton and Renault write some of the sport’s most storied chapters, he was also in the middle of a number of controversies, including the dismissal of Roberto Moreno in 1991, Benetton’s illegal traction control in 1994, the modified fuel filling system in the same year, the stolen computer data scandal, the exclusion of Renault following the mass damper suspension controversy, and so on.
Flavio has become a flying hot potato no one wants to catch for fear of finding themselves in the firing line of FIA officials.
The thing is, Briatore has never been passionate about auto racing. For him, it’s all show business and nothing more. In fact, he was busy implementing a Benetton retailer network across the United States when Luciano Benetton asked him to oversee his F1 racing team. Flavio went from selling wool sweaters to heading an F1 crew in just a few hours.
A former Renault executive once told me this about Briatore: "He’s an excellent boss, but a stingy one. He only allows one mistake. The second time you screw up, you’re shown the door."
It goes without saying that his managerial style didn’t get unanimous approval. The fact that Briatore was both team director and driver manager didn’t sit well with many. He always seemed to be involved in some conflict of interest, but people stayed mum because they were scared of his possible retaliation.
After he reportedly ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Mosley and the FIA saw a golden opportunity to forcibly get rid of the hotheaded Italian. However, the decision of the French court complicates the matter for the sport’s governing body, which desperately wants to hand a severe punishment to a man guilty of cheating and manipulation during a Grand Prix.
There is no light at the end of this tunnel yet, unfortunately. Rest assured that very few people want to see Flavio Briatore haunt the F1 paddocks anytime soon…