Andrea Stella has accused Alpine chief Flavio Briatore of "insulting" McLaren by questioning the relationship between the reigning constructors' champions and a judge at the FIA's International Court of Appeal. The court announced on Friday that penalties given to Alpine driver Pierre Gasly during June's Monaco Grand Prix would be reinstated, following a successful appeal by McLaren and Red Bull. Gasly took the chequered flag in third but was demoted when two five-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane were applied at that point.
However, a right of review appeal from Alpine saw the penalties withdrawn five days later. The reinstatement of the penalty drops Gasly back to seventh in the official classification. Red Bull's Isack Hadjar gets a podium in third, while McLaren's Oscar Piastri moves up to fourth.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player In an explosive press conference at this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, which coincidentally featured Alpine executive director Briatore and McLaren team principal Stella, the pair engaged in a remarkable clash. Alpine had put out a statement moments after the decision was announced expressing "disappointment" with the outcome but also said that the team "acknowledges the decision of the judging panel from the recent hearing in Paris". Briatore stunned the room by striking a different tone in the press conference just a couple of hours later as he complained that one of the four judges at the hearing had a "working relationship" with McLaren.
"I think it's very unfair, firstly, but we accept the decision," Briatore said. "But what is very strange was the third judge in the panel, one of the judges acted like a prosecutor. "For this, not a big problem.
The problem is, he is very linked with the McLaren company." Briatore pointed to the individual's presence at a charity event in California in 2018, at which he claimed "two of three McLaren cars" were donated. "We have a nice picture of this guy at the speech for McLaren in 2018," Briatore said. "I think it was quite unfair that one of the judges was linked with a team protesting us." Briatore added that the judge in question was "very nasty" to Alpine's representatives during the hearing, and said that his team were "thinking about" taking legal action.
The FIA has yet to formally respond to Briatore's comments but Sky Sports News understands the sport's governing body is confident in the independence of its International Court of Appeal and the process for selecting its panel of judges. Stella initially chose not to respond to Briatore's comments, but eventually appeared to threaten his fellow Italian with legal action. "I find that this conference is going in this direction quite insulting for McLaren, for the reputation of a team that deserves a lot of respect," Stella said.
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