Flavio Briatore accuses FIA judge of 'McLaren bias' in extraordinary claims

Alpine boss Flavio Briatore has accused a judge on the FIA's International Court of Appeal hearing of being biased against the team amid purported links to McLaren. 

On Friday, the ruling of the International Court of Appeal was handed down, with the panel deciding to reinstate the two five-second time penalties originally handed to Alpine's Pierre Gasly for speeding in the pit-lane. 

Gasly had finished third on the road, but dropped to seventh in the final results once the penalties had been added to his elapsed race time, but Alpine successfully lodged a right of review to overturn the penalties after it was found the official timekeeper had made a mistake in measuring the length of the pit lane.

McLaren and Red Bull, whose Isack Hadjar was promoted to third, stripped of it, and then reinstated after Friday's ruling, lodged the hearing with the FIA's International Court of Appeal, which was heard in September.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, in the FIA's Team Principal's Press Conference, Briatore launched his astonishing claims at one of the four panel members. 

"Sorry, this is very unfair," Briatore began to media, including RacingNews365. 

"First, we accept the decision, but what is very strange is of the four judges on the panel, one of the judges acts like a prosecutor. 

"For us, that's not a big problem. The problem is that he's very linked with McLaren, because we have a nice picture of this guy at the speech for McLaren in 2018 at McLaren Special Operations (MSO) in Beverly Hills. 

"He has a foundation called One Drop Foundation, and McLaren gave a car. This is quite unfair. One of the judges was linked with a team protesting us."

After McLaren boss Andrea Stella attempted to make a defence of the team's decision to appeal on the basis of sporting integrity, Briatore dismissed this. 

"What is unfair is that the judge was linked with McLaren; this is unfair. The judge normally needs to be completely independent, and this judge was very nasty during the hearing. He was acting as a prosecutor, and after, we found out why the reason was he so nasty. The guy is very linked with McLaren. 

"Whatever Stella says for the sport, first I think about the judgement is that you have to be independent, and doing a speech for McLaren, and somebody using McLaren cars in the charity- this is the point. 

"After that, points 1.1.2,3,4,5 [of the rules], I don't care; I'm very surprised this guy has been dealing with McLaren. 

"We had no idea this guy was linked with McLaren. We went to the hearing with McLaren, and we saw it was very funny because this judge was not a judge; he was a prosecutor. Afterwards, we found out this guy was linked with the McLaren team; this is what I think. So it's quite unfair if some of the judge is one of the team fighting with us. 

"The decision in Monaco was from the same people, because the stewards talking about are the same. Everything was done the same, and I accept everything. What I do not accept is when you have the judge, the panel. We need somebody independent. 

"Our big question is this: Why was somebody involved with McLaren part of the panel in the in this case?

"We accept the result of the hearing. What was very disappointing is to find out that one of the judges has a very good relationship with McLaren, a working relationship, kind. 

"The panel should be completely independent, and you don't need somebody linked with some team, especially the team involved with us in this situation. Only that. Nothing. Now we see. We think about what we can do next."