F1: Briatore, Symonds Out - Renault Admits Guilt

Formula 1

F1: Briatore, Symonds Out - Renault Admits Guilt

Renault has announced that Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have left the team – and that it will ‘not dispute’ the case against it made by the FIA...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted September 16, 2009 Balen (BEL)

Renault announced Wednesday, that executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds (Left) and managing director Flavio Briatore (Right) have left the team. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Renault has announced that Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have left the team – and that it will ‘not dispute’ the case against it made by the FIA.

A statement from the team said: ‘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.’

Clearly Briatore and Symonds had been left in an impossible position by the evidence that has stacked up against them, and by leaving they must hope that they may well assume that they will be able to avoid the embarrassment of a grilling by the World Motor Sport Council on September 21.

However their evidence already exists in the form of interviews that took place at Spa and subsequent written submissions, and they could still be subject to personal bans from any involvement in motor sport.

Meanwhile the team is clearly hoping that the absence of the two main protagonists will lead to a less harsh sentence, and equally that by not contesting the charges the FIA will look more favorably upon them.

It remains to be seen if that actually pays off, because the FIA will no doubt note that it gave the team and its management every chance to come clean, and that it gave them some 19 days from the date of the original Spa interviews before they did so.

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