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Autosport Magazine

Jan 22, 2010, 5:04 PM

Flavio Briatore's victory in a Paris court in no way exonerates him from the crash scandal. But it does highlight the dangers when F1 governance is perceived as being used to settle personal grudges

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The Flavio Briatore/FIA case carries deep implications. What the French courts ruled had nothing to do with whether or not Briatore (or Pat Symonds, who was included in the same case) was guilty of cheating at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. All the court said was that the procedure used by the FIA in deciding that they were guilty, and what the subsequent punishment should be, was not legally correct - on two counts.

Firstly, it maintained that having the same body launch an investigation, conduct it and judge it is completely invalid. In other words, the crime may well have been committed, but the punishment was a stitch-up - and not a legally binding one.