Formula One news

Prost: Separate driver managers from teams

With Flavio Briatore having walked away from Renault in shame following his part in the race-fixing scandal of Singapore last year, reports now say the Italian will attend the team's FIA hearing in Paris on Monday. Ex-Champion Alain Prost, tipped to take the Team Principal role, believes Briatore enjoyed too much authority in his position.

With Briatore, along with Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds, now out of Renault F1, the team will continue to face charges from the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in Paris on Monday. Four-time World Champion and ex-team owner Prost is widely believed to be inheriting Briatore's role but would not want to see the former holder of the job back in the sport.

Briatore also manages former Benetton test driver Mark Webber

"It should be difficult for Briatore or Symonds to find a way back into F1 but in this sport you never know," Prost told The Daily Mail. "In a moral world, it should be impossible for them to do so; it's unbelievable to think what happened and what could have happened as a consequence."

Alain is also pushing to see no connection between driver managers and teams, believing that Briatore's position granted him complete and unfair power over Nelson Piquet Jnr. "This problem started by having a Team Principal representing a big factory, and a big constructor like Renault, but also being a manager of a driver," Prost - Champion of 1985, '86, '89 and '93 - continued.

"You need to understand that a young driver like Piquet is very fragile and he had a lot of pressure. Piquet went too far but it is something that should not happen again - it is not fair; if you want to keep constructors in F1 you have to have a sport that is cleaner and with greater integrity. Team Principals should not manage drivers."

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