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Mosley says Briatore will not escape punishment
Source: Agencies |
January 8, 2010, Friday
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FORMER Renault Formula One team boss Flavio Briatore will not escape sanction for his role in a race-fixing scandal despite a Paris court overturning his lifetime ban, ex-FIA president Max Mosley said yesterday.
"The idea that in the end, when all the dust has settled, Briatore will get off is fiction. It won't happen," he told the Times newspaper.
Mosley was leading the International Automobile Federation (FIA) last year when Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet went to the governing body to tell them he had been ordered by his Renault team to crash deliberately at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help teammate Fernando Alonso win. Renault collected a suspended permanent ban while Italian Briatore was barred for life.
Piquet was given immunity from punishment.
A Paris court ruled on Tuesday that Briatore's ban was illegal, and also suggested Mosley had violated "the principal of a separation of the bodies that are responsible for the investigation and for the judgement."
Mosley, who has since handed over to Frenchman and former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt, said the court decision would undermine the FIA if allowed to go unchallenged.
"If we can't sanction somebody for doing what Briatore and (former Renault engineering head Pat) Symonds did, then the whole purpose and basis of the FIA would be in question, because it goes to the heart of safety, of fairness and to all the fundamental points of our activity," he said.
"The idea that we might say: "Oh, it's all right" would be unthinkable.
"That would be the end of any credibility for Formula One because you cannot envisage a more serious example of cheating than what happened in Singapore. Not only was it dishonest from the cheating point of view, it put lives in danger."
The Briton added that Briatore should think twice before contemplating legal action against Piquet and his father.
"As far as the Piquets are concerned, I expect there will be a countersuit which would make his eyes water," he said.
"The idea that in the end, when all the dust has settled, Briatore will get off is fiction. It won't happen," he told the Times newspaper.
Mosley was leading the International Automobile Federation (FIA) last year when Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet went to the governing body to tell them he had been ordered by his Renault team to crash deliberately at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help teammate Fernando Alonso win. Renault collected a suspended permanent ban while Italian Briatore was barred for life.
Piquet was given immunity from punishment.
A Paris court ruled on Tuesday that Briatore's ban was illegal, and also suggested Mosley had violated "the principal of a separation of the bodies that are responsible for the investigation and for the judgement."
Mosley, who has since handed over to Frenchman and former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt, said the court decision would undermine the FIA if allowed to go unchallenged.
"If we can't sanction somebody for doing what Briatore and (former Renault engineering head Pat) Symonds did, then the whole purpose and basis of the FIA would be in question, because it goes to the heart of safety, of fairness and to all the fundamental points of our activity," he said.
"The idea that we might say: "Oh, it's all right" would be unthinkable.
"That would be the end of any credibility for Formula One because you cannot envisage a more serious example of cheating than what happened in Singapore. Not only was it dishonest from the cheating point of view, it put lives in danger."
The Briton added that Briatore should think twice before contemplating legal action against Piquet and his father.
"As far as the Piquets are concerned, I expect there will be a countersuit which would make his eyes water," he said.
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