Italians stole the show on Friday at the Italian Grand Prix, but we’re not talking about Andrea Kimi Antonelli or Ferrari.
Instead it was Flavio Briatore, the flamboyant and bombastic Alpine boss, who set the Monza paddock alight in an incendiary press conference filled with serious allegations of bias.
The target of his claims is one of the four judges of the FIA International Court of Appeal, which on Friday ruled that Alpine driver Pierre Gasly should be stripped of his Monaco Grand Prix podium as part of the long-running spit lane speeding saga.
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Briatore sensationally alleged that the judge had links to McLaren, which was one of two teams to take the matter all the way to motorsport’s highest tribunal.
The remarks drew a fired-up defence from McLaren boss Andrea Stella, and it ended with Briatore appearing to suggest that his team could seek to overturn the court’s decision, plunging the already months-long saga into fresh doubt.
WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT?
With impeccable timing, the ruling of the International Court of Appeal was publicly released during FP1, ensuring track action took a back seat.
The 26-page document is a dense legal report not only of the court’s deliberations and decision but also of the events of the Monaco Grand Prix that sparked this saga.
An unusually high number of pit lane speeding penalties were handed down in Monte Carlo, including during the race. Pierre Gasly received two, for which he had 10s added to his final race time.
The Frenchman finished third but was duly dropped to seventh in the classification — until Alpine decided to appeal.
The French-owned team argued that Formula One Management, which administers the telemetry and timing hardware and software, had made a mistake measuring the distance of the pit lane. Pit lane speed is judged using an average speed calculation, and therefore an incorrect distance would return an incorrect speed.
The stewards accepted that argument and reinstated Gasly to the podium around a week later.
It was a remarkable ruling given three of the other four drivers who were pinged for speeding in the race served their penalties during the race and therefore had no opportunity to argue for similar recourse.
McLaren and Red Bull Racing subsequently launched an appeal to the appeal, which ended up in the FIA International Court of Appeal last week.
McLaren principal Stella said it was a matter of sporting fairness and integrity.
Appealing to the ICA is a long and quasi-legal process, with the hearing taking place 79 days after the race.
The decision, published 10 days after the hearing, was that Gasly’s penalties must be reinstated.
The one-line summary of the verdict might read: it was the same for everyone.
The panel of judges found that there is no regulation governing how the pit lane should be measured, and therefore even an ‘incorrect’ measurement isn’t contrary to the rules.
Further, as defined by the regulations, pit lane speed is the average speed calculation, even if that’s not reflective of the car’s actual speed, and it’s up to every team to work to the system.
Alpine’s measurements were not made in the same way that FOM takes its measurements and, in any case, were made after the race, so not in representative conditions.
The team’s evidence that Gasly was not speeding is therefore irrelevant, but the court also underlined that even Alpine admitted the speed it says Gasly was travelling at was only an estimate and could not be objectively verified.
Alpine and the FIA were forced to split the appeal’s costs.
The changed results promotes Isack Hadjar back to the podium — his first for Red Bull Racing — and moves Piastri back to fourth.
It does not change the positions on either title table but does drop Alpine further behind Racing Bulls in the battle for fifth in the constructors championship — what had been a three-point gap is now a 16-point margin.
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WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN BRIATORE AND STELLA?
Alpine immediately released a statement of “disappointment and frustration” with the result, which it said left Gasly and the team “unjustly punished”. It said it “acknowledges” the ruling, though it did not say that it accepted it.
That became notable later in the day, when Briatore went nuclear.
“This is very unfair, but we accept the decision,” he said, before appearing to launch into a list of reasons why Alpine in fact does not accept the decision that he appeared to have printed on a sheet of paper.
“What is very strange was [there were] four judges in the panel. One of the judges acted like a prosecutor.
“This is not a big problem. The problem is he’s very linked with the McLaren company, because we have a nice picture of this guy at a speech for McLaren in 2018 in MSO [McLaren Special Operations], Beverly Hills.
“He has a foundation, it’s called One Drop Foundation, and McLaren gave two, three McLaren cars.
“This was quite unfair. One of the judges was linked with a team which was processing us.”
Stella, sharing the press conference couch with Briatore, initially played with a straight bat in reply.
“My reaction is about the decision of the International Court of Appeal,” he said. “If we want to talk about that, then I’m happy to comment.
“If you want to talk about this kind of allegations, then I think that’s not convenient.”
Briatore was undeterred.
“What is unfair is some judge was linked with McLaren. This is unfair.
“The judge normally needs to be independent completely, and this judge, the name is — it’s kind of an Italian name, but he’s American — Filippo Marchino.
“He was very nasty during the hearing, was acting as a prosecutor.
“After, we found out what is the reason why so nasty, this guy: he is very linked with McLaren.
“The judge needs to be independent and not somebody doing the speech for McLaren and somebody using the McLaren car in the charity. This is the point.”
Teams have an opportunity to object to appointments to the panel, who are chosen from a larger pool judges, but Briatore said his team wasn’t aware of Marchino’s alleged links before the hearing.
Though Briatore said that “we accept the decision; we accept everything”, he then went on to suggest Alpine is considering further action.
“We’ve been thinking about it,” he said. “[We will] just pass the weekend, and after that we think about it. For the moment, I don’t know.”
Stella wasn’t going to give Briatore another free swing.
“I find that this conference going in this direction is quite insulting for McLaren, for the reputation of a team that deserves a lot of respect,” he said.
“If anybody makes these kinds of allegations — which seem quite serious — they are going to have to take the responsibility for what they are saying in a public forum.
“The hearing, the whole International Court of Appeal, was conducted to the highest standards, and we should not question this phase like it’s been done.”
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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
There is no higher tribunal in world motorsport than the FIA International Court of Appeal, meaning Alpine is out of options to escalate the matter.
However, the ICA can review its own decisions if “important new evidence” is discovered after the fact that was unknown at the time of the original hearing.
In a statement later in the day, the FIA laid out the stringent rules for verifying the eligibility of judges to be appointed to the pool. It’s unclear, but would seem unlikely, that these allegations would constitute new evidence.
Alpine could, though, take the case to a civil court. Though competitors agree that civilian courts cannot rule on sporting matters — so, for example, the speeding penalties themselves can’t end up in court — teams and drivers can still allege breaches of real-world laws in real-world courts.
Felipe Massa, for example, is taking Formula 1, the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone to the UK High Court over allegations of conspiracy and inducement of breach of contract in relation to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix and its influence on that year’s championship, which he lost to Lewis Hamilton by a point.
The court will not change the championship outcome but could award damages in Massa’s favour.
Briatore has first-hand experience of the intersection between sporting and legal authority.
The FIA banned the Italian manager from all motorsport events for life for presiding over the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix ‘crashgate’ cheating scandal.
Briatore was the Renault boss at the time Nelson Piquet Junior was ordered to deliberately crash his car in the race to benefit teammate Fernando Alonso, who won as a result.
He took the FIA to court in France and had the ban overturned — and won compensation too — on the grounds that he was not afford due process. He and the FIA subsequently reached a settlement that kept him out of the sport until 2013.
He returned to the management of Alpine — the former Renault team — in 2024.
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WHAT HAPPENED ON TRACK?
George Russell let some of the air out of the Ferrari balloon in FP2, eclipsing what had been a Scuderia one-two in FP1 by pipping Charles Leclerc by the end of the day.
The margin was narrow, however — just 0.12s.
It’s heartening for Ferrari that it might be in the mix at all — and a big boost for its new engine.
While it’s only practice, and everyone will inevitably be holding a little bit back, Ferrari wasn’t nearly as adrift on straight-line speed as it has been at previous races.
The two cars are roughly equal into the first turn. Mercedes is then faster up to the Roggia chicane and out of the second Lesmo down to the Ascari chicane — though Ferrari limits the losses with better speed through both Lesmo turns.
Ferrari is then quicker on the run out of Ascari down to Parabolica such that a 0.3s difference is zeroed as the cars tip into the right-hander.
Russell’s Mercedes then has fractionally more to give on the short run to the line.
There’s another reason, a little further down the timing sheet, for Ferrari optimism.
Ferrari had enough engine parts for only one power unit apiece for its customer teams. At Haas, Oliver Bearman is using the new engine this weekend, while Esteban Ocon is on the old spec.
The telemetry shows Bearman has clearly and significantly better straight-line performance — he’s 15km/h faster down to Parabolica, for example.
Teams are still playing with their electrical deployment and recharging strategies, so this picture could change again by qualifying.
The slipstream will also likely play a role, and here Russell could have an advantage. With Andrea Kimi Antonelli guaranteed to start from the back of the grid with an engine change penalty, he can focus fully in Q3 on towing Russell to a better time.
Ferrari will likely also attempt a slipstream, but it will have to give both drivers an opportunity to set a competitive time.
But getting one car on the front row looks likely, and with the early signs positive at such a power-sensitive track, there’s certainly reason for optimism at Ferrari.
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IS ANYONE ELSE IN THE MIX?
The battle for pole looks very much like a two-team, three-driver contest at the moment, with only Mercedes and Ferrari looking competitive.
McLaren was concerned heading into this race that there was nothing on the track map that would help its car, and Friday certainly proved that to be true. Lando Norris was quicker than Oscar Piastri but still 0.384s off the pace. Despite having the same Mercedes engine as Russell, he lost time down every straight without getting any meaningful advantage through the chicanes and gaining only slightly through the fast Lesmo corners.
It speaks to the McLaren’s higher drag level — even with its brand-new rollover rear wing, which it said performed as expected — but also its shorter gear ratios.
The shorter gears mean the engine is not revving as highly as it is in the Mercedes works car, which means the battery is charging less, which in turn means it’s running out of power sooner down the straights.
Gear ratios are locked in for the season, and though every team can make one change, McLaren has opted not to spend money on that costly exercise.
Red Bull Racing is potentially a little closer on straight-line speed, but the car is too badly balanced for Max Verstappen to compete in the corners, leaving it a remarkable 0.818s off the pace and looking for a Friday night miracle to get into the mix.