The former Renault team boss, disgraced Flavio Briatore has today appeared in a French court for the start of a hearing against the FIA. Briatore wants his lifetime motorsport ban overturned and £900,000 in damages.
Briatore received his lifetime ban from motorsport due to his alleged involvement in the ‘crashgate‘ scandal, where Nelson Piquet Jr. was told to deliberately crash in order to let his teammate Fernando Alonso win at the Singapore Grand Prix 2008. Briatore still denies any involvement in what was dubbed by some as ‘The worst act of cheating in the history of sport’.
On the FIA’s decision to ban Briatore, he said that the FIA’s president at the time Max Mosley was;
“Blinded by an excessive desire for personal revenge”
- an argument stemming from Briatore’s disagreements previously with the FIA, where Briatore lead the group wanting to create a breakaway series following the rows over a budget cap.
Jack Sargeant is the editor-in-chief and designer of An F1 Blog. Follow him on 
