18/03/2007
NEWS STORY
Having described his own driver's performance as rubbish, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Flavio Briatore saved his strongest criticism for the backmarkers that caused numerous problems during today's Australian Grand Prix.
That said, the Flamboyant Italian's solution to the perennial problem of backmarkers who fail to check their mirrors and get in the way of faster drivers, might be seen as somewhat radical.
"These people ignore blue flags, any flag," he told reporters. "You need a rifle to get these guys moving.
"I hope the federation is doing something," he continued, "because it's impossible to keep people behind for three or four laps like that."
Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren 'hot-shot' Lewis Hamilton were both caught up in separate incidents involving backmarkers, with Adrian Sutil receiving a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags.
"I followed a few cars for more than a lap," said the Finn, "so it wasn't ideal and they didn't move over even though they had blue flags. That was quite poor in this race. Hopefully we can improve that because it's not ideal if you're leading and you have to wait and wait for people to let you past."