Secondly, the two “taking responsibility” for what happened in Singapore would logically include some amount of blame.
Apparently, none of the two are true. While Flavio Briatore issued a quick statement of his own yesterday morning in which he insisted he is not in any way guilty of fixing a race in the series – for the record, the Paris' Tribunal de Grande Instance reversing FIA's initial lifetime ban for the Italian was based on a proceeding error, rather than confirm his innocence – Symonds also revealed he would be allowed to work in F1 as a consultant at any time.
“Under this agreement Pat Symonds acknowledges that it was his duty to prevent such an event occurring and, in not doing so, he must share in the responsibility attached to this incident,” said a statement from Pat Symonds' lawyers.
“As such, and with the best interests of the sport in mind, he has agreed with the FIA that he will not take a direct operational role in Formula 1 until the end of 2012 nor will he take any similar role in any team involved in any other FIA series until the end of 2011.”
“This agreement does not prevent him acting as a consultant to any team during this period and he will continue to contribute to the sport in this, and other, ways. In the light of this agreement, both he and the FIA consider the matter to be at an end,” added the statement.
So it seems the two are on a whole different page as compared to the FIA in the matter, as the agreement signed by the 3 parties on Monday is really a lose-win-win situation (read that FIA-Briatore-Symonds). The two former Renault members walked away with their F1 future barely touched – given that their “innocence” was proven on a procedure error – while the FIA's image of “strong ruler” of F1 racing has suffered a great blow. Unless they hit back...
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