Team Representatives: Flavio Briatore, Frédéric Vasseur and Andrea Stella.

Q: Can we start with some breaking news from the International Court of Appeal today, the headline being that Pierre Gasly has lost his third place at the Monaco Grand Prix. Flavio, perhaps we could start with you and get your reaction to that, please?
Flavio Briatore: 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.

Q: Well, Andrea, perhaps we could bring you in on this and get your reaction as well, please?
Andrea Stella: My reaction is about the decision of the International Court of Appeal. If we want to talk about that, then I'm happy to comment. We have just released also a statement. If you want to talk about this kind of allegations, then I think that's not convenient.

Q: Well, let's start with the former, just on the decision.
AS: Yeah, it's a decision that definitely we welcome. It's very important. It's important because, first of all, it adds clarity in relation to the application of Article 1.1.1 of the International Sporting Code of the FIA, which is foundational - foundational for anything that derives from there. We appealed because we wanted to make sure that this clarity was sought. We had concerns, which were beyond the fact that we might have lost two championship points. Probably these two championship points are not going to make any difference. We were concerned about the application of sporting equality and fairness, and this is important. And this is not only important for McLaren. In fact, not only Red Bull applied, but all teams were present in the hearing because this was a very important moment, I would say, in terms of clarification as to how we apply the rules, as to how we apply consistency, and also, in the specific case, consistency is related to the methodologies that are valid through a race weekend.

Q: Thank you. Flavio, do you want to come back in?
FB: Very nice talking about the point one, one, P2, three, P, P, P, but what is unfair is some judge was linked with McLaren. This is unfair. The judge normally needs to be independent, completely. And this judge, the name is, it's kind of an Italian name, but he's American, Filippo Marchino. Filippo Marchino is a judge, he was very nasty during the hearing, was acting as a prosecutor. And after, we found out what is the reason why so nasty, this guy. He is very linked with McLaren. This I notice. So whatever Stella said, for the sport, for this, first I think someone, where you have the judgement, the judge needs to be independent. And not somebody doing the speech for McLaren and somebody using the McLaren car in the charity. This is the point. After that, the point one, one, three, two, four, five, I don't care. I care... I'm very surprised this guy have the link with McLaren.

Q: Okay, thank you. Fred, can we just bring you in now? Ferrari not directly involved in this case, but it would be interesting to get your reaction to it as well.
Frédéric Vasseur: Well, first, I think it was not an easy case to judge. I can understand the frustration from everybody. For the rest of the discussion, I will let Andrea and Flavio discuss together. But no, I think it was not easy. We paid the penalty in Monaco also with Lewis and a little bit with Charles. But I can understand the frustration because we didn't have the feeling to speed into the pit lane. For the rest, it's their discussion.

Q: Okay. Fred, if we just stay with you now. Ferrari running the PU upgrade this weekend. FP1 seemed to go very well. Do you think you've got enough to challenge for the victory on Sunday?
FV: It's never a shortcut with you! Yes, FP1 went well, but we were also P1, P2 last year and we know how it ended. It means that we have to stay calm. We didn't compensate at all the delta with the Mercedes engine. We're still a long way on the engine side. The development, you have much more inertia. It means that it's step by step and it will be a long process. But a small step is a small step, and it's important when you see the fight on track and how tight it is on the grid. Sometimes a hundredth of a second is making a huge difference.

Q: Thanks for that. Andrea, if we can come to you now, just talk about performance. You've had a very quick race car the last couple of weekends. Just how confident are you coming to Monza that you can make it a hat-trick of wins?
AS: I think it's an interesting racetrack for us to check the progress of the MCL40, because if we think about Hungary and Zandvoort, we know that the characteristics are very different to Monza. There's a much bigger premium to the speed you can carry in the corners. There's long corners. Here it's very much about the speed you can develop in the straights and the balance between the grip you have in the corners and the aerodynamic resistance as well. I think if we focus for a second on drag, we know that not necessarily this is a point of strength of our car. So, we have some question marks in terms of our potential. We are adding some upgrades to our car, trying to address this element of the aerodynamic resistance, but we will see overall where we are, I think, only once we are in qualifying. But definitely an interesting weekend to assess our car.

Q: Thank you, Andrea. And Flavio, back to you. Can we just talk briefly about Franco? You announced he's staying with the team for 2027 last week. Clearly, he's taken a big step this year, but are there still some areas in which you'd like to see him improve some more?
FB: Well, you know, what is more important in the team now is the consistency. For 2027, we believe the best was to keep the line-up, two drivers we have. Franco was improving this year. He's much, much better than the year before. He's still very young. It's the second season, basically the first full season in Formula 1. I believe it was the right move to keep the two drivers we have. Franco is very, very happy to stay in the team and the relationship between Franco and Pierre is super for the moment, because you never know what's going on. But consistency is the first fact we want to keep in the team.

Questions From The Floor

Q: (Ted Kravitz - Sky Sports UK) Flavio, just to pick up on what you're saying. The gentleman you're referring to was not named the president of the hearing, that was Mr Grech. Can you just say that you, and neither, as is listed, did your legal representatives suggest any objections at the time to this gentleman?
FB: We don't know that. [Unclear] FIA know as well. We have no idea this guy was linked with McLaren. We go to the hearing with McLaren and we see it was very funny because this judge was not a judge, he was a prosecutor. It was four judges. This one was really a prosecutor against the FIA, against to us, against to FOM. I mean, after that we found out, after the meeting, logically, not before, we found out this guy was linked with the McLaren team. This is what I think. So. it's quite unfair if some of the judges is linked with one of the teams that is fighting with us.

Q: (Ted Kravitz - Sky Sports UK) Okay, but it's quite a serious allegation and obviously Mr Marchino is not here to defend himself.
FB: Like Stella said, we accept the decision. We accept everything. I mean, it's quite strange to have one guy in the panel linked to the team.

Q: (Ted Kravitz - Sky Sports UK) My question was actually: is the team considering further judicial review based on what you're saying today?
FB: No, we've been thinking about it. Just pass the weekend and after that we think about it. For the moment, I don't know.

Q: (Craig Slater - Sky Sports) Just to Andrea, I understand that this is difficult territory we're getting into with regard to who was sitting in judgement on this case, but would you at least reject any notion that McLaren had any agency in terms of who was appointed to oversee this case? Further to that, what else needs to happen now to avoid F1 getting in this situation again?
AS: I find that this conference going in this direction is quite insulting for McLaren, for the reputation of a team that deserves a lot of respect. And 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 phase like it's been done.

Q: (Mara Sangiogio - Sky Sports Italy) I change totally topic, maybe easier. A question to Fred and Andrea. Is Monza a sliding door moment for your championship, or can only Mercedes lose it?
AS: It could be a sliding door. Let's see. I think, like I said before, for us it's very interesting to see how can we compete in a circuit that is very demanding in terms of straight-line speed, because we know that that's not the strength of our car. I think if we can do well here in Monza, if we can fight for podiums here, then who knows? The championship may be open. We know that we have lost a lot of points in the first part, not only for performance but also for reliability. This can happen to anybody, so we have to still stay there and make sure that every single weekend we do our best.

FV: I think that Monza is a special one. A special one also compared to the previous Monza because, for once, we are used to come to Monza with perhaps 100 points of downforce less than the other tracks, and it's not the case this season. It means that it's a different approach, different exercise for the team, for the drivers. But it's not the end of the championship. We have still, after this one, 500 points to score until the end. And for sure everybody would prefer to win in Monza, and I'm the first, but it's not the end of the championship in any case.