What to Hell is THAT About?!
Russia probes bomb attack on ex-F1 driver:
Russian police have opened an investigation into the attempted murder of a former Formula One test driver after an explosion wrecked his car, local media reported.A bomb detonated on Monday under a Mercedes-Benz sports utility vehicle owned by Sergei Zlobin, a former test driver with the Minardi Formula One team, Interfax news agency quoted a police source as saying.
Zlobin was slightly hurt. His car was badly damaged. Zlobin tested for the struggling Minardi team in 2002 as part of a sponsorship deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Maybe the answer can be found in that last line.
Gazprom chairman Alexander Medvedev has predicted by 2017 the company would be the world’s biggest corporation.
However that in part may be on the back of a bunch of scandals in the late nineties through the year 2000. As a result the Russian Government now owns about 40% of the company. Anything with Rootin’-Tootin’ Putin’s hands in it has to be suspect.
Toss in it’s a safe bet Sergei Zlobin has some type of stake in the company that helped pave his way into the Minardi ride and you have a recipe for things that go boom in the night and pieces of a Merc scattered hither and yon.
F1, Minardi, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
Minardi were desperate for cash at the time, as for Sergei Zlobin….”test driver”(?) more like straight line testing 7 one lap shakedown/system checks prior to a real driver getting behind the wheel.
Who would have a grudge against him or Gazprom? Well for starters a couple of million Ukranians. Gazprom had a dispute with the Ukraine over the Christmas period, which resulted in Gazprom shutting off the gas supply to Ukraine. Hell the last time a Russian organisation did something like that to the Ukraine was in the 1920’s when Stalin took the crops out of their hands & caused a famine that killed hundreds of thousands.
I’m betting Paul Stoddart asked for money upfront for that test ride. Remember when Walkinshaw at Arrows had that Nigerian sponsor Prince Whatsiname? LOL, he never paid a cent.