Flavio Briatore’s life time F1 ban overturned

Disgraced former Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore has had the FIA life time ban overturned today by French courts.  Briatore was given the life time ban by the FIA at the back end of 2009 after the widely publicised F1 Crash-Gate controvisy.  Flavio argued that the ban the FIA has imposed upon him was far to harsh and was influenced by the then FIA president Max Mosley, who seemingly was acting out his own personal vendetta towards Briatore.

This is bad news for F1 and the FIA. Firstly the negativity that surrounded the Crash-Gate story will be brought back to the headlines, promoting the sport in a dismal light again, and secondly new FIA president Jean Todd has his first significant issue to tackle.  The F1 community and worlds press will be interested to see if the new broom in Jean Todt can act decisively against Briatore or if the same old murky waters still flow through the FIA towers.

Ultimately though the question begs if anyone in F1 would want to be associated with Briatore having been made scapegoat for the deliberate accident caused at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix involving Nelson Piquet Jr and Pat Symonds.  Piquet Jr is finding it incredibly tough re-establishing his name and credibility and one wonders if Flavio despite the ruling today will find his attempts to get back in to F1 futile.