MCLAREN and Alpine went to war as Flavio Briatore accused a judge of being biased to the Papaya team after Pierre Gasly’s Monaco podium was overturned.
It was announced on Friday that McLaren and Red Bull had won their appeals against the result of the Monaco Grand Prix.
It came after controversy surrounding multiple incorrect pit-lane speeding penalties.
The victory meant Alpine’s Pierre Gasly lost the podium he was awarded after a previous appeal by the French team had overturned two five-second penalties.
Gasly, who finished third, is dropped back to seventh, while Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar is returned to third place and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri fourth.
Alpine boss Briatore and McLaren chief Andrea Stella exchanged furious words in an awkward press conference today.
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Briatore said: “This is very unfair. But you know, 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, 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 processing us.
“Very nice talking about the points, but what is unfair is some judge was linked with McLaren.
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“The judge normally needs to be independent, completely. And this judge, the name is Filippo Marchino.
“He was very nasty during the hearing and after, we found out what is the reason why. He is very linked with McLaren.”
Stella hit back and said: “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.
“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.”