Max Mosley has stressed that he in no way harbors ill feelings towards Flavio Briatore after the Italian saw his lifetime Formula 1 ban overturned by a French court on Tuesday. The ex FIA President does insist, however, that the sport's governing body should appeal the decision of Paris' Tribunal de Grande Instance, claiming that the ruling is 'extraordinary'.
With Mosley, since succeeded by Jean Todt, having been FIA President at the time of Briatore's banishing, Tuesday's verdict saw the Paris court lift the sanction of the FIA, criticising the way in which the federation applied the ban. Having gained F1 freedom again, Briatore has now threatened to sue the Piquet family which first revealed the race-fixing scandal of Singapore 2008.
"It's just talk," Mosley told The Telegraph, "a little bit of boasting to the Italian press - the fact is, if he went after the Piquets there would be a countersuit that would make his eyes water; in fact, I think he will be very fortunate not to get sued by the Piquets because, don't forget, he accused them of blackmail and extortion (in a leaked letter to Nelson Piquet Sr. last September), which is very defamatory - it may well be, I don't know, that the Piquets are preparing to sue him."
Mosley went on to stress that the French court has not cleared the 59-year-old former Renault Team Manager as innocent. "Remember, the court did not find that he was not guilty," the Englishman continued. "They just didn't like the procedure we used, but it's a very preliminary judgement. I think the FIA should appeal the judgement because I think it is seriously flawed in a number of areas - aspects of it are just extraordinary; Symonds (former Renault F1 Executive Director of Engineering) actually admitted in writing that he was guilty and yet they found it in his favour - but that's only because they are not looking at the substance, they are just looking at the procedure."
Finally, Mosley denied popular speculation that the disagreement comes down to a pure personal conflict between himself and Briatore. "The inquiry was carried out by the stewards, completely independently, with the supervision of outside lawyers," the retiree explained. "My involvement was purely in the World Council, so the suggestion that I had it in for him is complete nonsense.
"After the whole row with the teams last summer, he and I had a very friendly lunch in Monaco, at Rampoldi's. There was never an animus there. This was all invented to distract attention from the fact he committed the worst example of cheating in the history of sport."
Having cleared up the situation between himself and the Italian, Mosley reiterated that the 'Crashgate' case has not yet met its end: "One thing's for sure - it's very far from over."
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