Despite reaching an out-of-court settlement with the FIA, Flavio Briatore continues to deny any personal involvement in 'Crashgate'.
Former Renault F1 boss continues to deny personal involvement in 'Crashgate'
Despite reaching an out-of-court settlement with the FIA which has finally brought an end to the so-called 'Crashgate' saga, Flavio Briatore continues to deny any personal involvement in the affair.
World motorsport's governing body announced on Monday that the lifetime ban it had formerly imposed on Renault F1's former team principal, together with the five-year ban handed to the team's former executive director of engineering Pat Symonds, would be replaced by a sanction barring them from any involvement in the sport until January 1 2013.
The deal comes after both men had successfully overturned their original bans in a French court in January - the FIA in turn launching an appeal against those decisions.
Monday's statement from the FIA stated that Briatore and Symonds had each recognised their "share of responsibility for the deliberate crash involving the driver Nelson Piquet Junior at the 2008 Grand Prix of Singapore" and that they had "expressed their regrets and presented their apologies" to the governing body.
However in a statement released by his lawyers, Briatore has continued to deny that he actually conspired with Piquet and Symonds to cause the crash, saying any sense of responsibility comes merely as a result of his then position in the team.
"He [Briatore] confirmed his acceptance to bear his share of responsibility in the Singapore events in his capacity of Managing Director of the Renault F1 Team, at the time they happened, without any admission of a personal guilt in these events and without any recognition of the fact that the decision of the World Council rendered against him would have been well-founded," the statement read.
"Flavio Briatore informed the FIA of his intention not to undertake any operational role in Formula One before the end of 2012, nor in any other FIA Championship, before the end of the Racing Season 2011," it added.
