Lynn Duffy's Blog

Had to share redbullog’s pic of Renault’s new livery for the Singapore Grand Prix…

Classic.

I really want to know whether Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore were pushed or jumped… James Allen seems to think they jumped, whereas Joe Saward seems to be saying pushed.

One thing to come out of today – I’ve discovered that I’m guilty of national stereotyping! I’ve always disliked Flavio Briatore a lot: the dodgy gold jewellry, the playboy lifestyle with yacht and obligatory dimbo girlfriends (he’s about 60). He’s always seemed like the classic Italian sexist crooked politician, and his penchant for hanging around with Silvio Berlusconi didn’t help. However, I’ve always rather liked Pat Symonds… first he’s an engineer, like me and more than 50% of my family, and secondly he comes across as rather a nice chappie. He’s got a decent English sense of humour, and is very interesting on screen.

However, when I think back over all the dodgy stuff Renault (and Benetton before them, even more so) got up to, Symonds has been right there in the thick of it. He was Schumi’s engineer FFS! So fundamentally, I was inclined to judge FB as guilty because I think of him as crooked (a dirty old man, really) while I was giving PS the benefit of the doubt and thinking that FB probably pushed him into it, whereas there was no evidence at all for that.

They’ve been working together for nearly 20 years… one assumes PS could have moved elsewhere if FB’s modus operandi bothered him so much.

I’ve noticed that on most of the blogs I visit, many commenters have said the same as me – no surprise about Flavio, but very disappointed in Pat S. So maybe I’m not the only one suffering from this attitude? F1 is an Anglo-centric sport, after all.

Hmm. It will be most interesting to see if Pat has been paid off to stop him testifying on Monday! We’ll see.

~ by Lynn Duffy on September 16, 2009.

Posted in F1
Tags: cheating, F1, photo, renault