Report: Italian gov't siezes Flavio Briatore's $22M yacht
The Italians don't play when it comes to tax evasion and financial crimes, with a special branch of the army called the Guardia di Finanza solely devoted to busting those who play with numbers. Flavio Briatore is one of the most recent big fish caught in the Guardia's net; his $22-million yacht, Force Blue, was impounded over the weekend off the coast of the Italian Riviera.
FIA, Briatore put an end to legal saga
It's been a long, drawn-out affair extending back two years since the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. That's when then-Renault F1 chiefs Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds allegedly instructed their rookie driver Nelson Piquet Jr to crash on purpose and give the advantage to his world-champion wingman Fernando Alonso. The scandal erupted the following/last season when Piquet blew the whistle. Briatore and Symonds were summarily excommunicated from
Crashgate Keeps Gate Crashing: Piquets reportedly suing Briatore for libel
You didn't actually think we'd heard the last of Crashgate, did you? The scandal that rocked the Formula One racing world last season and well into the post-season involved the Renault F1 team, its driver Nelson Piquet, Jr. and its top executives Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds.
Flavio Briatore suing the FIA... again?!
Flavio Briatore is out for blood. The flamboyant Italian billionaire and disgraced former director of the Renault Formula One team was kicked out of the sport by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in the wake of the "Crashgate" affair involving Nelson Piquet Jr., but subsequently won an appeal in French courts <
Report: French court overturns F1 bans for Briatore and Symonds
Frank Filipponio
BREAKING: Renault F1 placed on suspended two-year, Briatore banned indefinitely?
The World Motor Sports Council took only 90 minutes to reach a verdict in the case of Crashgate – wherein former driver Nelson Piquet, Jr. intentionally chucked his car into the wall at last year's Singapore GP to hand the win to Renault teammate Fernando Alonso. Realizing that Renault was contrite and that the company's disappearance from F1 would be bad for a lot of people, the WSMC handed the company a two-year suspended sentence. If Renault – and its people – keep clean unt
More Musical Chairs: Renault F1 replaces Piquet with Grosjean pending FIA penalty appeal
More F1 teams joins boycott call for 2010 regulation changes
Yesterday, we brought you news that Toyota could quit Formula One if FIA president Max Mosley's proposal for a two-tiered budget system is put in place. But the Japanese team based in Germany – currently enjoying its best season so far – isn't the only one makin
BREAKING: Alonso signs with Renault
UPDATE: Official press release from Renault confirming Alonso's return can be read
Alonso to announce today, Ghosn throws wrench into the works
The motorsport press is reporting that Fernando Alonso will announce sometime today whose car he will be driving next season. The two-time world champion was recently released from his contract with McLaren-Mercedes, with whom he had a very tumultuous last season. Rumors have been circulating the paddock as to where he'd be heading as a newly free agent, but Flavio Briatore, his former boss at Renault, has made no secret of the door he's left open and the light he's