05/10/2011
NEWS STORY
On Monday last week the UK's Financial Times wrote a piece 'revealing' news which had already been reported by Pitpass 24 hours earlier - namely, that the trial against Formula One's former chairman Gerhard Gribkowsky will go ahead at the end of October.
F1's boss Bernie Ecclestone declined to tell the FT whether or not he would attend the trial as a witness and he was quoted as saying "I am sure when I will get the request, I will reply to them." Given his own personal experience dealing with the FT in the UK, Pitpass' business editor Christian Sylt fully understands why Ecclestone stopped short of telling more to the paper's in-house journalists. Accordingly, Sylt called Ecclestone and put to him the same question of whether he will be attending the trial as a witness. The response was far more enlightening than that found in the FT.
As Sylt reports in the Independent, Ecclestone will indeed be giving evidence at the trial which begins on 24th October. "I'm going to be a witness in the trial. I have been to Munich and was questioned so I suppose they want to ask me the questions that I answered then. It's what would normally happen in a court." Ecclestone adds that "(F1's chief legal officer Sacha Woodward-Hill) has got to go too."
A total of 26 hearings have been scheduled for the trial with the last due to take place on 20th January next year. If necessary, further sittings may be tabled on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The first hearing will be held at 9.30am in meeting room A 101 of the Criminal Justice Centre on 16 Nymphenburgerstrasse in Munich. Room B 173 will be the location for all of the following hearings, including those on the 9th and 10th November when Ecclestone will be giving evidence.
According to Munich court information, the deadline for media applications is 12th October so anyone who wants a front row seat had better get a move on. As Pitpass has already reported, it may well be a farcical case.