Flavio Briatore makes shocking McLaren accusation after Gasly FIA decision

Flavio Briatore has claimed that a judge in the Pierre Gasly Monaco appeal case is “very linked with McLaren” after Alpine lost its third place following appeals from McLaren and Red Bull.

The result of June’s Monaco Grand Prix was thrown into disarray when a problem was identified with the FOM-administered timing loops in the pit lane.

Flavio Briatore makes ‘McLaren’ accusation after losing Monaco podium

It meant that although Gasly crossed the line in third place, he was demoted to seventh after two post-race time penalties were applied for exceeding the pit lane speed limit.

Alpine successfully appealed the penalties as it had the Right to Review given that Gasly had not served his penalties during the race.

But with four other drivers penalised for the same controversial infringement during the race, Red Bull and McLaren appealed.

Alpine’s Right to Review had denied Isack Hadjar a first podium as a Red Bull while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was one of the drivers who served a penalty during the race.

McLaren and Red Bull lodged appeals at the FIA’s International Court of Appeal, which ruled on Friday that Gasly had lost his podium finish. Hadjar was reinstated to third, with Piastri up to fourth. Gasly was demoted to seventh.

Appearing in Friday’s FIA press conference at the Italian Grand Prix, Alpine adviser Briatore decried the decision as he claimed that a judge involved in the case was “linked” to McLaren.

PlanetF1.com has chosen not to identify the accused judge, who was named by Briatore in the press conference.

“I think it’s very unfair,” Briatore told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets.

“First, we accept the decision. But what is very strange was a judge in the panel, one of the judges acts like a prosecutor.

“For this, not [a] big problem.

“The problem is [they are] very linked with the McLaren company, because we have a nice picture of this [judge] as the speech for McLaren in 2018.

“It’s called One Drop Foundation, and McLaren gave a McLaren car.

“And I think it was quite unfair, one of the judges was linked with a team with protesting us.”

He continued: “It’s very nice talking about the points, but what is unfair is the judge was linked with McLaren. This is unfair.

“The judges [are] normally independent completely, and this judge was very nasty during the hearing. [He] was acting as a prosecutor.

“After we found out what is the reason why it’s so nasty? This [judge] is very linked with McLaren.”

Briatore was asked whether Alpine’s legal team had objected to the judge’s appointment.

He replied: “We don’t know. We had no idea this [judge] was linked with McLaren.

“We go to the hearing with McLaren, and we see it was very funny because this judge was not a judge, was a prosecutor, was for judge this one was really a prosecutor.

“And after that, we found out after the meeting. We found that this [judge] was linked with the McLaren team.

“This is what I think. So it’s quite unfair if some of the judge is linked with one of the teams fighting with us.”

Put to him that his allegation was serious, Briatore replied: “We accept the decision, we accept everything, But it’s quite strange. One [judge] in the panel linked to the team.”

More on F1’s Monaco GP decision

Pierre Gasly loses Monaco Grand Prix podium after McLaren, Red Bull appeals

In full: Pierre Gasly verdict by FIA International Court of Appeal

He doubled down on that, saying: “We accept the result of the hearing. What was very disappointing is to find out one of the judges have a very good relationship with McLaren, working relationship kind of that. Only that.

“I think the panel is being completely independent, and you don’t need somebody linked with some team, especially the team involved with us in this in this situation. Only that.

“Now we see. We think about what can we do next.

Briatore didn’t rule out further litigation from Alpine.

“We’re thinking about and just past the weekend, and after that we are thinking about. For the moment, I don’t know,” he said.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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