It came as a great surprise to hear that Flavio Briatore has won his legal action against the FIA, through the French courts. His ban is lifted, as is the one for Pat Symonds. Briatore gets 15,000 Euros damages (he was asking for 2m) and Symonds gets 5,000. The FIA now has 15 days in which to advertise the ruling in a French newspaper of Flav and Pat's choosing, and inform the F1 teams.
The FIA lost because neither Flav or Pat are license holders subject to their jurisdiction.
So now there is talk that the FIA will demand team bosses and other senior personnel apply for licenses, just like the drivers do, and are subject to a 'fit and proper persons' test.
The FIA are considering appealing. The court did address the subject of a vendetta, citing that there was conflict between Briatore and Mosley and that Mosley had a leading role in the enquiry.
How this is handled will say a lot about Jean Todt - does he fight to preserve the authority of the FIA, or does he leave it and allow the Federation to move on? I know which Mosley would rather, and I'm sure he remains influential.
The authority of the FIA, though, is important and the decision to lift Briatore and Symonds bans further erodes the credibility of F1. These two were involved in one of sports most audacious attempts at cheating, and they should be punished.
It may be that the FIA introduces a wider system of licenses, and fails Flav and Pat in the fit and proper person test.
But it will be harder to stop Flav from managing the likes of Mark Webber, Heikki Kovalainen and Fernando Alonso. Previously, they as license holders were banned from working with him but it would appear that this has now been lifted by the court (I need to get confirmation on this).
So I guess we'll be seeing Briatore in Bahrain then.
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