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Formula One news: Button slams Briatore comments - GPUpdate.net Formula One



Jenson Button has responded to comments directed at the Brawn team from Flavio Briatore; after the FIA's announcement this week that double diffuser devices - as first seen from Brawn, Toyota and Williams - are fully legal, Briatore criticised the credibility of the success experienced by Button and team-mate Barrichello so far this year.

"The drivers in our team have been and are world champions," Renault team principal Briatore told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport. "The championship is now fought between a practically retired driver and another one who is a good guy but a paracarro (Italy's equivalent of 'slow coach'). To make up the gap to those teams is impossible."

Button, who has won the first two Grands Prix for the new Brawn GP team, responded to the comments from his old boss in China. "Unless he is at the front of F1, I am sure any team hurts the credibility of F1," Frome's Button responded. "He also needs to remember that he tried to employ me for this year."

His last comment could result in repercussions inside the Renault team, after rumours surrounded the drive of Nelson Piquet at the end of 2008. "He is obviously a very angry man after the diffuser issues," Button continued, about Briatore. "He is obviously very disappointed that they haven't produced a car that is as competitive as ours. We have produced a very competitive car because of the work force we have back at Brackley, and you cannot take it away from them. It would be very unfair to say that - they have worked very, very hard in very difficult circumstances and it is very unfair for Flavio to comment as he has, just because he is a little bit bitter."

Button, who posted the fastest time in Shanghai on Friday, drove for Briatore when the Italian retook control of the Benetton team in 2001, which then became Renault the following season. Despite strong performances from the Englishman, he was sacked and replaced in the car by Fernando Alonso for 2003.

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A furious Flavio Briatore in Shanghai accused F1's governing body of tempting another fatality by legalising 'double diffusers'.

Even though Fernando Alonso's R29 is now fitted with an early version of the controversial aerodynamic treatment, the Renault boss said the sport is racing down a dangerous road.

"After the death of (Ayrton) Senna the principle was to not give certain (ground) effects to the cars, but now suddenly it's all legal," the Italian told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

He said the current pecking order, with Renault, McLaren and Ferrari struggling, and the Brawn Mercedes drivers out in front, is an affront to F1's credibility.

"Our drivers are or have been world champions, and then you have a (Brawn) driver who was almost retired, and another who is a 'paracarro', fighting for the championship," said Briatore. "I don't know how we can say we have credibility."

A 'paracarro' is a concrete roadside post, and it is not clear if Briatore was referring to Button or Barrichello.

With a modified diffuser, Lewis Hamilton was quickest on Friday morning in China, but Briatore doubts the original 'diffuser three' can be so easily caught.

"It is impossible to recover the ground we have lost on those teams," he insisted. "In three or four races the championship will be decided and I don't know what the interest of the TV viewers will be when Button has 60 points and Nakajima 50. "

"It will be better to listen only on radio and watch something else," said Briatore.

He also said the current situation has made a mockery of Max Mosley's proposal to impose a 33m euro budget cap next year.

"We have spent 15 on KERS, another 10 on the diffuser, so we have five left for travel and to pay the employees," said Briatore.

Figures for Red Bull have also expressed disappointment over the issue, and it remains the case that BMW Sauber has still not decided whether to appeal the decision of the stewards to reject its diffuser protest of Malaysia.

Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali, meanwhile, is wary of the manner in which the Court of Appeal so quickly came to its decision to reject the anti-diffuser teams' case.

"The perception is that it was a decision already taken," he said in Shanghai. "The court closed at the end (of Tuesday) and immediately in the morning (of Wednesday) there was the decision."

"It's a strange feeling and we await the (court's) motivation," said Domenicali.

E.A. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM