Whatever time Baryshnikov had spent in America, thought Straker, it hadn’t improved his accent or syntax.
‘We’re going to have to work extra hard to counter him – to defend ourselves – then,’ said Straker. ‘Particularly as we’ve only got four weeks to the trial.’
Everyone's expression around the table changed for the worse.
‘Can I suggest we get straight on with discussing what we need to do? Sandy, can you tell us what we are up against? What does Gazdanov need to prove in court to succeed with a charge of corporate manslaughter?’
Without hesitation, she said: ‘It's a new charge in Russian law. There is no precedent. The courts have no prior conception of what culpability should look like. For us, this is a negative; in effect, it gives Gazdanov a licence to build any case he wants.’
Baryshnikov butted in: ‘And he going to wins.’
‘Why do you say that?’ Backhouse asked.
‘Russian people get revenge. Must have revenge. Too many people die.’
‘There's meant to be a legal process involved, Yegor,’ said Straker; with his eyes still on Baryshnikov he turned to McMahon and asked: ‘What does Gazdanov have to prove then, Sandy, from a legal point of view?’
McMahon now also looked at Baryshnikov with some concern. ‘He has to show that there was negligence. He needs to prove that, with Ptarmigan's full knowledge, things were done – or were not done – which knowingly affected the safety of the car, and which led directly to the accident. Things, in this case, would include any malfunction in design, maintenance, repairs, checks, etc. Gazdanov should not find this easy, particularly if he's relying on a Russian expert to investigate the crash.’
‘How wrong with Russian expert?’ countered Baryshnikov. ‘Don’t need brains of monkey to know fault. Thirty dead.’
‘The law still requires a proper legal argument, Mr Baryshnikov,’ said McMahon firmly. ‘Mr Gazdanov will have to prove what happened … with evidence.’
‘And what about fault? Blame? Ptarmigan must not – run away from – blame.’
‘What blame is that, Yegor?’ asked Backhouse. ‘This was nothing more than a racing incident, for Christ sakes. This was a Formula One fact of life.’
Baryshnikov grunted and shook his head. ‘Ptarmigan have to face fact,’ he snapped. ‘We all know. Remy took risk – big risk – going round outside of corner. Everyone know track there dirty. Marbles. Grip, very bad. Knew danger. Knew danger.’
‘That's total crap, Yegor,’ retorted Backhouse. ‘What lap were you on, six? On a brand-new circuit! There were piss all marbles out there. And I don’t like the insinuation, my friend. Some of us were none too chuffed with the bollocks you pulled in Canada against Remy. Don’t try anything like that again here, yeah? Sure you want to win – but win fair.’
‘Canada not bollocks,’ he said his face reddening. ‘I – there – sabotaged. This – here – different. Russians of Moscow – dead. Ptarmigan – she – got to face horror of blame. She try to cuts corner. Again. She already done it before. Montreal – she criticize by FIA for doing it.’
Backhouse replied with a phoney chuckle: ‘Well, I guess, Yegor, that means we won’t be putting you on the stand in the trial.’
The Russian began to look agitated.
Baryshnikov stated: ‘Ptarmigan must put up hand.’ Then, to everyone's amazement, the Russian climbed to his feet, walked down the room, pressed the button, dropped down the steps, and left the motor home.
TWENTY-THREE
There was an awkward silence as the door hissed shut behind him. No one had expected anything like that. Backhouse, now looking a little sheepish, said defensively: ‘Teammates are known to have tricky relationships, but this is the worst case of teammate-itis I’ve ever seen.’
‘We can’t believe that reaction is entirely driven by competitiveness, can we?’ offered Straker.
‘You don’t know Yegor Baryshnikov,’ replied Backhouse.
Straker looked unconvinced.
McMahon said: ‘He's Russian – the first Russian driver – at the first Moscow Grand Prix. Expectations here have been ramped for him in F1. And now there's a national catastrophe, given all the more prominence because of the publicity surrounding him; he could well be feeling the public reaction very personally … and taking it badly.’
Straker exhaled. ‘Possibly. But I don’t like his vibe – he’d better keep his thoughts to himself. We do not want a loose cannon.’
Several heads were nodding.
‘While Andy was being somewhat flippant,’ Straker went on, casting a mildly admonitory glance at Backhouse, ‘I share the concern of putting Baryshnikov in the witness box.’
McMahon stepped in: ‘Why don’t I have a chat with him? Use the cover of calling it a legal briefing, to try and calm him down?’
Straker nodded. ‘Good idea. Let's set that up as soon as possible, please? We don’t want him brooding on this for too long, God forbid discussing any of those opinions with other people.’
Backhouse agreed and indicated to one of the team, who turned directly away to call Baryshnikov on his phone.
Straker wanted to bring the meeting back on track. ‘With Yegor's claims of blame, and the trial apparently a foregone conclusion, there's all the more reason to prepare our defence properly. Sandy, you were saying that Gazdanov would find it difficult to prove negligence.’
‘I did, but we never take anything for granted in court, even when we have a cast-iron case. Things can always come up, get blown out of proportion, become a distraction – anything can affect a judgment. But,’ she continued, ‘when a case is not black and white, the trick for any prosecutor is to try and create doubt. If there is no silver bullet, the prosecution is highly likely to blow up other issues – however small – to colour the defendant in a bad light. None of these kinds of issues would probably amount to anything on their own, but put them all together and they can be presented as an insight into the defendant's background, ethical standards or attitude. If done deviously enough, they can make it impossible for the jury to dismiss the actual charge out of hand.’
‘Guilt by insinuation?’ said Straker.
‘And Ms Sabatino will not be well served in this trial by having a disciplinary strike against her with the FIA from her last race. Gazdanov will be all over that, without question.’
‘How do we guard against this guilt by association thing?’ asked Backhouse. ‘How do we defend ourselves against it?’
‘Brandeis's advice, we hope, is little more than common sense: preparation for trial has to be thorough. We need to go through every incident that Gazdanov could cite where Ptarmigan – or Ms Sabatino – has been found to have breached a rule or regulation. We need to explain what each offence involved, what it meant, and why it didn’t really matter. We need to be able to demonstrate how robust the Ptarmigan management systems are in respect of compliance with the FIA rules, the design process of the cars, the testing procedures, safety procedures, and for monitoring and processing feedback. Any slippage, in any of these, and Gazdanov will smell blood. He will go after every flaw and failure – dissect each one – and make each one out to sound heinous. He will then use them, banging on about the sloppiness of the team, expecting everyone to see that with such sloppiness of course the cars were unsafe, that Ptarmigan was cutting corners for financial gain, that it was taking reckless risks, and that – of course – any accident can be traced straight back to Ptarmigan's cavalier attitude and negligence.’
It was hardly surprising the mood of the team deteriorated. Straker was aware that morale would need to be high if they were going to face up to the gloomy prospect of this trial, not least in motivating the team in the effort needed to prepare for it.
Retaking the floor, Straker thanked McMahon for her explanations and declared that their fightback was starting right now.
