The 59-year old launched his legal case ahead of the Paris' Tribunal de Grande Instance in late November. When appearing before the judges, the Italian insisted that he is not guilty of the things the FIA found him responsible of, and asked for his image to be cleared.
Following the FIA judgment, at which he was not present, Briatore was served a lifetime ban from all FIA-sanctioned motorsport series. In addition, Renault's former engineering boss Pat Symonds was handed a 5-year suspension from all racing series, while race driver Nelsinho Piquet was cleared by the FIA to continue his racing career.
In his argument against the FIA, Briatore insisted that the ban was not served by the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), but by FIA president Max Mosley, out of an “excessive desire for personal revenge.”
He continued by saying that the WMSC “took only a decision of an 'administrative nature', did not issue any ruling against myself and was thus actually not bound to comply with any standards of civilized justice.”
Apart from the ban lift, Briatore also received 15,000 Euros in compensation.
More details on the court's ruling to follow...
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