McLaren issue statement over Flavio Briatore accusations after Alpine stripped of Monaco GP podium

McLaren have responded after Alpine boss Flavio Briatore accused a judge at the FIA's International Court of Appeal hearing of being biased towards them.

A ruling on Friday decided to reinstate the two five-second penalties against Pierre Gasly at the Monaco Grand Prix after he was deemed to have been speeding in the pit lane.

Gasly finished third on the track but was demoted to seventh after the penalties, only for them to be overturned on appeal when it emerged that an official timekeeper had incorrectly measured the length of the pit lane.

However, the latest FIA appeal ruling reinstated the initial penalties, resulting in Alpine being stripped of its podium finish three months after the race took place.

Read more: F1 changes Monaco Grand Prix result for second time almost three months after race

Flavio Briatore makes serious McLaren accusation

McLaren and Red Bull appealed to the FIA's International Court of Appeal to overturn the initial ruling on the grounds of sporting fairness, after Oscar Piastri lost two points as a consequence of the same situation.

The McLaren driver was one of four drivers to serve a five-second penalty for pit-lane speeding during the race. As a result of the decision, Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar was promoted to third, while Piastri moved up to fourth.

Speaking shortly after the announcement, Briatore accused one member of the appeal committee of having links to McLaren after the team benefited at Alpine's expense.

"Sorry, this is very unfair," Briatore said. "First, we accept the decision, but what is very strange is that of the four judges on the panel, one of the judges acts like a prosecutor.

"For us, that's not a big problem. The problem is that he's very linked with McLaren, because we have a nice picture of this guy at the speech for McLaren in 2018 at McLaren Special Operations (MSO) in Beverly Hills.

"He has a foundation called One Drop Foundation, and McLaren gave a car. This is quite unfair. One of the judges was linked with a team protesting us."

McLaren boss Andrea Stella subsequently attempted to diffuse the situation and reiterated that the decision had been reached on the grounds of sporting integrity, a claim that was dismissed by an irate Briatore.

The Alpine boss added: "What is unfair is that the judge was linked with McLaren. This is unfair. The judge normally needs to be completely independent, and this judge was very nasty during the hearing. He was acting as a prosecutor, and afterwards, we found out why he was so nasty. The guy is very linked with McLaren.

"Whatever Stella says about the sport, first I think about the judgement is that you have to be independent, and doing a speech for McLaren, and somebody using McLaren cars in the charity – this is the point.

"After that, points 1.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [of the rules], I don't care; I'm very surprised this guy has been dealing with McLaren.

"We had no idea this guy was linked with McLaren. We went to the hearing with McLaren, and we saw it was very funny because this judge was not a judge; he was a prosecutor. Afterwards, we found out this guy was linked with the McLaren team. This is what I think.

"So it's quite unfair if one of the judges is from one of the teams fighting with us. The decision in Monaco was from the same people, because the stewards we're talking about are the same. Everything was done the same, and I accept everything.

"What I do not accept is when you have the judge, the panel. We need somebody independent.

"Our big question is this: Why was somebody involved with McLaren part of the panel in this case?

"We accept the result of the hearing. What was very disappointing was to find out that one of the judges has a very good relationship with McLaren, a working relationship, kind of.

"The panel should be completely independent, and you don't need somebody linked with some team, especially the team involved with us in this situation. Only that. Nothing. Now we see. We think about what we can do next."

As per Sky Sports, it is understood that the FIA is 'confident in the independence of its International Court of Appeal and the process for selecting its panel of judges'.

It is also understood that McLaren 'consider they have no connection with the judge in question'.

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Why did the Monaco GP result change after three months?

Gasly initially won his appeal against the pit-lane speeding penalties after Alpine argued there was a 77-centimetre discrepancy between the officially measured distance of the pit lane and the shortest route a driver could legally take.

The team successfully argued that Gasly had not exceeded the pit-lane speed limit when using this revised measurement, which led to the penalties being overturned.

However, that decision was subsequently appealed by McLaren on the grounds of sporting fairness, as their driver Piastri had lost two points as a consequence of the same situation. Piastri was one of four drivers to serve a five-second penalty for pit-lane speeding.

It has now been decided that all of the initial penalties will remain in place, with Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar returning to third place and Piastri moving up to fourth. Racing Bulls duo Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad move up to fifth and sixth respectively, with Gasly demoted back to seventh.

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