Stella fumes at ‘insulting’ Briatore allegations after Alpine lose podium

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 However, a right of review appeal from Alpine saw the penalties withdrawn five days later.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.

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: McLaren deserve a lot of respect

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.

“And if anybody makes this 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. We should not question this space, like it’s been done.”

Stella has insisted throughout the process that McLaren were more interested in clarifying the rules for the good of the sport, rather than gaining two points for Piastri, who is not in championship contention this season.

“We had concerns which were beyond the fact that we might have lost two championship points, probably these two points aren’t going to make any difference,” Stella said.

“We were concerned about the application of sporting equality and fairness, and this is important. And this is not only important for McLaren.

“Not only Red Bull applied, but all teams were present in the hearing because this was a very important moment in terms of clarification as to how we apply the rules, as to how we apply consistency.

“And also, in this specific case, consistencies that are related to the methodologies that are valid throughout our race weekend.”

Alpine won their right of review case after presenting evidence which the stewards agreed was a “significant and relevant new element” regarding an incorrect distance calculation in the pit lane, showing the Frenchman was in fact not speeding.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes’ George Russell (whose penalty was later converted into a drive-through) and McLaren’s Piastri were all hit by the same speeding sanction, but as the drivers had already served the penalties during the race they could not be undone.

Sky Sports F1’s Italian GP live schedule

Saturday September 5
8.25am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Italian Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 11:30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Italian Grand Prix Qualifying build-up
3pm: ITALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday September 6
7.10am: F3 Feature Race
8.40am: F2 Feature Race
10.40am: Porsche Supercup Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Italian GP build-up
2pm: THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Italian GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 is at Monza for Ferrari’s home race at the Italian Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime