Briatore accuses ICA judge of McLaren links after Alpine loses Monaco podium

Flavio Briatore has accused one of the FIA’s International Court of Appeal (ICA) judges of being “very linked with McLaren” and being “very nasty during the hearing” after Alpine lost its Monaco Grand Prix podium.

McLaren and Red Bull had gone the ICA to challenge the stewards’ decision to rescind Pierre Gasly’s penalties in Monaco, which resulted in the Alpine driver finishing on the podium. Gasly had two five-second time penalties for speeding in the pit lane that were applied post-race, while a number of other drivers took penalties for the same infraction during the grand prix itself.

With the ICA now having ruled in favor of McLaren and Red Bull – reinstating Isack Hadjar to third place, and demoting Gasly behind Oscar Piastri and the two Racing Bulls cars – Briatore launched a remarkable attack on the impartiality of one of the judges involved.

"This is very unfair,” Briatore said. “We accept the decision, but what is very strange was four judges in the panel. One of the judges act 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 protesting us.

“It’s very nice talking about the point one, two, three … but 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. Filippo Marchino is a judge, he was very nasty during the hearing, was acting as a prosecutor. And after, we found out what is the reason why so nasty, this guy. He is very linked with McLaren.

“This, I notice. So whatever [Andrea] Stella said, for the sport, for this, first I think someone, where you have the judgement, the judge needs to be independent. And not somebody doing a speech for McLaren and somebody using the McLaren car in the charity. This is the point. After that, the point one, one, three, two, four, five, I don’t care. I care… I’m very surprised this guy has the link with McLaren.”

Asked to clarify the judge’s involvement with McLaren, Briatore suggested Alpine could seek a further judicial review. 

“What was very disappointing is to find out one of the judges has a very good relationship with McLaren – working relationship, kind of ... I think so 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," he said. "Other than that, nothing… Now we see. We’re thinking about what can we do next.”

“We’ve been thinking about it. Just pass the weekend, and after that we'll think about it. For the moment, I don’t know.”

Sitting alongside Briatore during the FIA press conference, McLaren team principal Stella voiced his dissent at the allegations.

“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,” Stella said. “And if anybody makes these kind 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.”