The FIA has reached an agreement with Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds which could see the pair return to the F1 paddock at the end of the 2012 season.

Briatore and Symonds received lifetime and five-year bans respectively for their roles in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, where Nelson Piquet crashed his Renault deliberately in order to allow team mate Fernando Alonso to take full advantage of the ensuing Safety Car and win the race.

Briatore has stated that it is not his intention to return to the sport but Symonds, who felt harshly treated, has made no secret of his desire to return to an arena in which he was a highly respected technical figure. Fifty-six years old at the time of his ban, he felt that it had effectively ended his career. Subsequently overturned by a French court, but only on the grounds of process, the matter looked set to run and run before the governing body reached an accommodation with the pair this week.

Symonds, alongside Ross Brawn, was a key member of the Benetton team which took Michael Schumacher to his first, Cosworth-powered, world title in 1994. He has agreed not to take a direct operational role in Formula 1 until the end of 2012, or in any team involved in any other FIA championship until the end of 2011. It is believed, however, that he is free to take up a consultancy role with any interested party with immediate effect.

Source: FIA/Cosworth