Flavio Briatore essentially accuses one of the FIA's International Court of Appeal's judges of being in McLaren's pocket.
The claim came at the team representative's press conference an hour or so after the court accepted the appeals against the Monaco stewards decision to rescind Pierre Hamilton's two 5s penalties, thereby demoting the Alpine driver from third to seventh.
"This is very unfair," said Briatore when asked about the court's decision. "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," he continued. "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."
"My reaction is about the decision of the International Court of Appeal?" said McLaren's Andrea Stella who was also attending the press conference. "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.
"It's a decision that definitely we welcome," he continued. "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."
"Very nice talking about the point one, one, P2, three, P, P, P, but what is unfair is some judge was linked with McLaren," said Briatore. "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."
Filippo Marchino (USA/Italy) was one of four judges hearing McLaren and Red Bull's appeals, the others being Michael Grech (Malta), Tomas Borec (Slovakia) and Luigi Fumagalli (Italy).
It is pointed out to Briatore that Marchino was not named president of the hearing, but rather Grech was. Nonetheless, in light of the claim, the Alpine boss was asked if he or his team's legal team raised any objections.
"We have no idea this guy was linked with McLaren," Briatore replied. "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.
"Like Stella said, we accept the decision," he added. "We accept everything. I mean, it's quite strange to have one guy in the panel linked to the team."
Asked if Alpine, under the circumstances, might consider further judicial review, Briatore said: "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."
At this point, a clearly angry, Andrea Stella interjected.
"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," he said. "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."
Sure enough, the subject was dropped, but subsequently Stella was asked, in light of the fact that the FIA is to review judicial processes such as the Right of Review, if he feels there are grounds for improvement, and where would he see grounds to make the system more robust.
"I think in the statement of the FIA it's highlighted how this was a case that will bring some positive outcome," replied the Italian, "because it will give the drive to review some of the ways in which regulations are enforced.
"I think there's a couple of points," he continued. "I think one is certainly in the declaration of the FIA. First of all, the stewards, they do a difficult job. They have to make decisions within a limited time frame. We know as competitors what it means when time is a variable, when pressure is up. The stewards won't be different. It won't be different for them. So, I think there's a point related to the decisions of the stewards and to the job they do.
"Actually, we've been in discussion before with the FIA in relation to that," he continued, "and we've always been very supportive of giving the stewards the best conditions to succeed in their work.
"The second topic is, in my view, the Right of Review. I think we need to consider the conditions in which a Right of Review should be received and should go ahead, and when that is not the case.
"And there is a third point, it's also very well described in the 29 pages of the decision, which has to do with the consistency in the application of a methodology used for measurements. There are many things we measure: the speed in pit lane; likewise, we use scales to measure car weight. So, there are many measurements that happen, and I think there's an interesting topic related to the consistency of this sort of measurement. For me, these are the three things that I would suggest are reviewed."
"Very quickly," said Briatore, "because first already was the decision in Monaco, from the same people, because the stewards, the nice stewards Stella is talking about, is the same.
"Everything was done the same. I accept everything. What I don't accept is when you have the judge, the panel, we need somebody independent. Only this. Our big question is why somebody involved with McLaren was part of the panel in this case. Simple as that."
Having said that the judge was "involved" with McLaren, Briatore was asked to explain exactly what he meant.
"I just said everything," the Alpine boss replied. "We accept the result of the hearing. What was very disappointing is to find out one of the judges has a very good relationship with McLaren - working relationship, kind of.
"Only that, nothing..." he added. "I think so 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're thinking about what can we do next."
While it will make for an interesting episode of Drive to Survive, it will be interesting to see what happens next. Did Briatore bring the sport into disrepute by making the claims in an open FIA press conference? Will Marchino consider legal action, will McLaren, will Alpine?
One gets the feeling that this is far from settled.
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