I will never manage another F1 team, says Briatore
Briatore resigned from his post as team principal of Renault's F1 team last summer
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By Tom Powell. |  |
Monday, 18, Jan 2010 10:49
By Adam Leveridge
Former Renault team principal Flavio Briatore insists he will never again return to formula one as a team manager.
Briatore was handed a lifetime ban from all FIA-sanctioned motorsport series at a hearing of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in September for his alleged involvement in the 2008 Singapore grand prix race-fixing scandal.
However, the Italian was not satisfied with his punishment and with the way the governing body dealt with the controversy, accusing then FIA president Max Mosley of having a personal vendetta against him.
The ex-team boss appealed the FIA's ruling and took the matter to the French high court in Paris, where his ban was overturned in a hearing at the beginning of the year.
Since then Briatore has said he will one day make a return to the top flight of motorsport - however, in an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper, the 59-year old said he doesn't intend to take on another team principal role.
"I will never manage another team in F1 in my life, this is sure, but I have got my dignity back which is important after 20 years in the sport," said Briatore.
"We had the report of FIA and the report of the stewards and there was not evidence that I was involved in the accident. This is official. Done by FIA. Simple."
The flamboyant Italian resigned from his post as team principal of Renault F1 midway through the 2009 season after damning evidence from an FIA investigation into the circumstances surrounding Nelson Piquet Jr's crash in Singapore came to light, linking both Briatore and Renault's former director of engineering Pat Symonds to the plot.
It later emerged that Piquet himself had made the anonymous allegations that he had been ordered to crash out of the inaugural night race to assist his team-mate Fernando Alonso.
However, the young Brazilian was awarded immunity from the WMSC hearing in exchange for his complete cooperation with the FIA in their investigation.
Renault was found not to have been directly involved in the plot and was given a two-year suspended sentence for their attempts to uncover the truth of the matter and to identify the guilty parties.