F1: Briatore's life ban overturned
French court rules FIA decision was 'irregular'
05 January, 16:53
(ANSA) - Paris, January 5 - A French court on
Tuesday overturned a life ban imposed on former Renault Formula
One supremo Flavio Briatore by the international racing
federation FIA.Observers believe that FIA may appeal Tuesday's decision.
Briatore, 59, was banned by FIA on September 21 for allegedly ordering driver Nelson Piquet Jr to crash out of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix so teammate Fernando Alonso could win.
The former Renault boss appealed the decision the following month before France's Tribunal de Grande Instance, which has jurisdiction over the Paris-based FIA, on the grounds that the case against him was rigged and that he was the victim of a vendetta by former FIA chief Max Mosley.
According to Briatore, the animosity between him and Mosley stemmed from the ex-Renault principal's role in the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), of which he was deputy chairman, and its tug of war over regulation changes with FIA which at one point saw the teams threatening to break away and form their own championship.
The ex-Renault boss also argued that many of the procedures adopted during the original investigation and hearing were contrary to both FIA's International Sporting Code and French law and represented an excessive abuse of power by both FIA and its World Motor Sport Council (WMSC).
Furthermore, Briatore said, the decisions to carry out an investigation and submit its results to the WMSC were made by the same person, Mosley, who assumed the roles of complainant, investigator, prosecutor and judge.
The life ban, Briatore underlined, was not among the sport's authorised sanctions, the most serious of which is disqualification of a team's or driver's license, whereas team managers do not have licenses.
In a statement released at the time, Briatore said ''the (September 21) ruling is a juridical aberration and I have complete faith in the French courts for a return to impartial justice".
In his appeal, Briatore also asked for one million euros in compensation for the damage the ban had on his reputation but in the end was awarded 15,000 euros.
The French court on Tuesday also squashed the five-year ban from racing imposed on former Renault engineering director Pat Symonds and awarded him 5,000 euros in damages.
While Symonds has admitted that he gave a green light to Piquet faking the crash, he claimed it was the driver's idea.
Piquet was sacked from the team in August and later blew the whistle about his fraudulent crash.
Renault was handed a suspended two-year sentence.
On the same day Briatore won his appeal, Renault announced that it had appointed Eric Boullier of France to take the helm of the Formula 1 team which the flamboyant Italian was forced to abandon. Boullier, 36, managed the DAMS team in the GP2 class but has no experience in Formula 1. He is, however, linked with Genii Capital, a fund based in Luxembourg which in December acquired a major stake in the French team.
