Pat Symonds going to Andretti reminded me that it’s super funny that they put the guy lowkey famous for (allegedly, probably) cheating in charge of catching people cheating like it’s not often I praise the way F1 is run but that is actually very smart.
First of all I would like to say that cheating, on literally every level, in every possible area of the team, on track and off is very much part of the beautiful fabric of Formula 1. I really wouldn’t have it any other way because it’s often extremely funny and often results in a comedy of errors committed in an attempt to get away with it that would really make an amazing sitcom. My only complaint is we really only get to see the tip of the iceberg. Symonds had been a staple in the paddock for decades working as the Cheif Technical Officer (or a similar role) for Benetton and then Renault when then bought the team. He was the race engineer to both Senna and Schumacher neither of whom ever crashed in a strategic manner why would you even say that was foreshadowing, because i would never bring that up.
While we’re talking about things i won’t bring up I will say that I also don’t think Benetton used the traction control software, they just had it in case. Flavio Briatore said it was a witch hunt and you know what I believe him. Oh yeah, Flavio is also there, Benetton hires him in 1990 after he had made a shitload of money franchising their stores in North America while on the run from the Italian law (love u king <3).
Anyway, Renault buys the team, Fernando wins a few championships, and you all know what happens next 🙂
I republished my old blog on crashgate here if you’d like to learn more but TLDR Renault is super sorry and the FIA/F1 banned Flavio and Symonds. What they didn’t know though is Flavio Briatore has a supernatural ability to not pay for his crimes like it’s actually sort of impressive but mostly terrifying. So that got overturned by a French court bc they were essentially firing them, it’s more complicated than that legally but especially Symonds had worked in F1 his whole life there is serious injury there so France was like you have to actually provide proof of misconduct you can’t do this based on vibes and anonymous drivers interviews. Because the FIA had given the drivers immunity and promised it would be off the record they didn’t want to turn them over and thus it was overturned.
Flavio honestly would have been fine either way because he owns like 34565432 businesses, hotels, etc. Also the man’s ability to pivot is uncanny.
Symonds went to work for Virgin and then for Williams for a bit and then in 2017 he became F1 Chief Technical Officer. I have no problem with this really, like a said i actually think it’s one of the smarter things F1 has done. Him going to work for Andretti after basically being the architect of the 2026 rules is, interesting, to me. Obviously Andretti won’t be in for 2026 but F1 basically said come back when Cadillac is ready so if they’re ready by 2027 having him around could be very useful.
While this is undoubtedly shady I don’t even have a real issue with it if I’m being honest, the revolving door between the FIA/F1 and teams is literally constant. But everyone wrote their nasty little articles about Susie Wolff, the head of an entirely separate series, because it was maybe possible that at some point HER BOSS could reveal highly classified information about the regulations in what amounts to a completely separate branch of their company and because she is married to a team principal I will pointedly not name and so he could use that information to his advantage. The outrage!!! It makes me so mad, first of all, in your imagined made up little fanfic the employee who has done something inappropriate is not Susie Wolff, it’s the CEO that is supposed to be able to be trusted not to be chit chatting about close hold discussions at the office Christmas party. But mainly it was just such a lame and blatantly misogynistic attempt to take a shot at Susie Wolff like boooo. So I’m afraid I must be bitchy about the blatant conflicts of interest that actually exist. Thank you for your time, back to my actual point
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