Former Renault F1 team principal Flavio Briatore is free to return to Formula One after a French court overturned his lifetime ban from motorsport today, sportinglife.com reports.
The FIA handed the former Renault team principal the stringent suspension in September for his role in the crashgate scandal.
The 59-year-old Italian took his case to the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris claiming the FIA did not have legal grounds to issue him with a wholesale ban.
“The court …

Infamous former Renault Formula One pilot Nelson Piquet Jr will complete the driver lineup of the new Campos team in 2010, Motorsport.com reports.
The 24-year-old Brazilian’s contract is for three years, ensuring a lineup of famous surnames, after his countryman Bruno Senna also signed for 2010 with the Spanish outfit.
Piquet’s seat follows the 15% purchase of the Campos-Meta team by his namesake and father, the triple world champion of the 80s.

Renault will race on in Formula One next years as the French car company sold most of the shares of the F1 team to Luxembourg businessman Gerard Lopez and retained only 25%.
Lopez’s Genii Capital investment company will now run the team, which will continue to race as Renault F1, the BBC reports. Lopez will own 75% of Renault’s chassis design and construction base in Enstone in Oxfordshire. Renault will retain total control over their engine …

Renault look almost certain to sell a controlling stake in their Formula One team to David Richards, the owner of Prodrive and chairman of Aston Martin, who plans to run the outfit from Renault’s existing factory in Oxfordshire and continue to race them under the Renault banner, The Times reports.
In a move that is designed to relieve Renault of the increasingly onerous financial and management responsibility of running their own team, but also spare Formula …

Disgraced former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore is seeking one million euro in compensation as part of the legal action appealing against his lifelong from F1, planet-f1.com reports.
Earlier this year, Briatore was effectively banned from Formula One for life for his part in Renault’s race-fixing scandal, which FIA said was of “unparalleled severity”. The flamboyant Italian’s punishment was the more severe of those handed out as Renault were only given a two-year suspended ban while …

Despite widespread rumours that the Renault F1 team could withdraw from Formula One, the team’s managing director Jean-Francois Caubet insisted that a working budget for 2010 has been approved and the team will race in F1 next year.
“We have already contracted our drivers, had our budget approved and are enrolled in the world championship. Season 2010 has begun already,” Caubet said, according to F1-live.com.
He added that Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has also laid out his …

Ferrari said yesterday that Formula One’s rulers were waging war on the manufacturers as Renault prepared to join Toyota in quitting the sport, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The Ferrari outburst came on a day in which the FIA, world motor sport’s governing body, said they were “concerned” by the sudden manner in which Toyota quit F1 yesterday and came amid increasing speculation that Renault might follow suit.
Ferrari suggested that the withdrawal of Honda, BMW, Bridgestone and …

Renault are to discuss pulling out of Formula 1 at an emergency board meeting in Paris today, however, they are not going to make the decision public today.
The French car company will decide whether to remain in the sport with their own team, switch to simply being an engine supplier or quit altogether, the BBC reports. The news comes on the day that Toyota announced their decision to quit F1, becoming the third car company to …

Former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore is to launch legal proceedings against motorsport’s governing body the FIA to overturn a ban imposed on him, the BBC reports.
The Italian was penalised for his role in Renault’s attempt to fix last year’s Singapore Grand Prix by asking driver Nelson Piquet Jr to crash deliberately. The FIA indefinitely banned Briatore from events they sanction and forbade him from managing drivers.
Briatore said the “FIA has been used as a tool …

Renault have confirmed that BMW Sauber’s Polish driver Robert Kubica will join them for next season, the BBC reports.
24-year-old Kubica will replace two-time Ferrari-bound world champion Fernando Alonso.
“I am highly motivated and optimistic that we can be at the front of the grid next year and hopefully fighting for the world title,” Kubica said.
“He is one of the most naturally talented drivers of his generation and it is great to have him next season,” Renault …

It’s impossible to tell if it’s the head injury Ferrari pilot Felipe Massa suffered in Hungary this year or he just doesn’t remember what exactly happened in Singapore last year, but his recent claims of how he was “robbed” of the championship title because of Renault’s fix-up are quite idiotic.
Massa, who’s been recovering from the accident and head injury he suffered at Hungaroring this summer, said that Renault driver Nelson Piquet’s deliberate crash and his …

Spaniard Fernando Alonso is joining Ferrari from next year, he has signed a three-year deal, believed to be worth £23million a year, and will partner Felipe Massa, the Daily Mail reports.
Italian Giancarlo Fisichella will be taking up the role of test and reserve driver.
Kimi Räikkönen, who has spent the last three years at Ferrari, is expected to return to McLaren, with BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica moving to Renault to fill the void created by Alonso’s …

Renault F1 team bosses Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds could potentially be extradited to Singapore to face criminal charges in the wake of their departure from Renault on Wednesday in connection with race-fixing claims, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Renault F1 managing director Briatore and executive director of engineering Symonds departed under a cloud yesterday as it was announced that the team would not contest charges of fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
The pair were accused by former …

One of the F1 legends, Flavio Briatore, has resigned as the team principal of the Renault Formula One team after the alleged plan to fix last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, The Times reports.
Pat Symonds, the Renault director of engineering, has also resigned after being offered immunity by the FIA in return for full disclosure of what went on at the night race last September.
The announcement comes as the team confirmed they would not contest the …

In a dramatic development in the Formula One “crashgate” scandal the FIA have offered the Renault team’s second-in-command, the director of engineering, Pat Symonds, immunity from punishment in exchange for full disclosure of how the alleged plan was executed, The Times reports.
FIA’s investigators have said that claims that the team asked Nelson Piquet Jr, their former driver, to crash his car deliberately at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix do have substance.
Symonds, the director of engineering …

Formula One’s cheating scandal took a fresh twist today when Renault announced they have begun legal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Jr and Nelson Piquet Sr over “the making of false allegations and a related attempt to blackmail the team into allowing Piquet Jr to drive for the remainder of the 2009 season”, The Times reports.
Piquet Jr yesterday gave a statement to the FIA, the sport’s governing body, in which he said that he crashed his …