Flavio Briatore accuses ‘very nasty’ judge of McLaren bias in explosive rant
Flavio Briatore has aimed some explosive allegations at McLaren's door following a hearing into the result of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Alpine’s Flavio Briatore has made an explosive allegation that one of the judges involved in the appeal hearing over the result of the Monaco Grand Prix has links to McLaren.
Alpine driver Pierre Gasly had his two five-second penalties reimposed and has been stripped of his Monaco Grand Prix podium finish for a second time after McLaren and Red Bull succeeded with their appeals.
McLaren and Red Bull brought their appeals before the International Court of Appeal, who delivered its verdict on Friday as practice got underway at the Italian Grand Prix.
Speaking in an extraordinary press conference after the opening practice session at Monza, Alpine executive advisor Briatore claimed that one of the four judges involved in the case was biased towards McLaren.
“I think it's very unfair, first of all, but we accept the decision,” Briatore said. “What is very strange was the fourth judge in the panel, and one of the judges acted like a prosecutor.
“For this, [it’s] not a big problem. The problem is, it's very linked with the McLaren company, because we have a nice picture of this guy at the speech for the McLaren in 2018 in MSO Beverly Hills.
“He made a foundation, it's called One Drop Foundation. And McLaren gave [it] two or three McLaren cars. And I think this was quite unfair [that] one of the judges was linked with a team with protesting us.”
Briatore continued: “What is unfair is some judge was linked with the McLaren. This is unfair [because] the judge normally [has to] be independent completely and this judge - the name is kind of Italian name - is American, Filippo Marchino, was very nasty during the hearing.
“[He] was acting as a prosecutor and after we come down to... what is the reason why [he was] so nasty? He's very linked with McLaren.”
Briatore said Alpine was not aware of the link until after the hearing took place and hinted that the French manufacturer is considering its legal options.
“We were very disappointed to found out one of the judge have a very good relationship with McLaren, working relationship kind,” he added.
“I think so the panel needs to be completely independent, and you don't need somebody linked with some team, especially the team involved with us in this situation. Now we think about what we do next.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
