Flavio Briatore crosses fingers for verdict in F1 life ban appeal

The outcome of Flavio Briatore's appeal against his lifetime ban from motor racing will be announced in Paris tomorrow. Briatore, the former principal of the Renault Formula One team, was banned for his involvement in the race-fixing scandal that saw Nelson Piquet Jr deliberately crash during the 2008 Singapore grand prix in order to help his team-mate, Fernando Alonso, win the race. Briatore and Pat Symonds, Renault's director of engineering, left the team prior to a hearing by the FIA on 21 September 2009. The sport's governing body barred Briatore from all of its championships and imposed a five-year ban on Symonds, who has also appealed. Piquet was granted immunity in return for his evidence. Renault received a suspended two-year ban. Ferrari's team principal, Stefano Domenicali, has said that neither Piquet nor Briatore should be allowed back. "F1 should not reduce itself to a world of nostalgia," he told La Stampa. "It's not right that Piquet should be allowed to return after what he did, and Briatore will not [be welcomed back] in the same capacity; people don't like reheated soup – he will have to find another opportunity." Briatore described the FIA decision as a "legal absurdity" and filed his action with the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris in late November. He later clashed with Max Mosley when he claimed that the former president of the FIA had been "blinded by an excessive desire for personal revenge". The leaking of private documents concerning the trial and published by the Guardian infuriated Mosley, who vigorously denied Briatore's allegation. "Briatore should be the last person to complain that the FIA has not treated him fairly," said Mosley. "The FIA has repeatedly given him the benefit of the doubt. "Once the FIA had a sworn statement from Nelson Piquet Jr confirming that he was ordered to crash, a full professional inquiry conducted by outside lawyers was inevitable. That inquiry, like Renault's own investigation, established Briatore's responsibility beyond question. The suggestion that all this was somehow manufactured for reasons of personal vengeance is a desperate and unsustainable argument." Robert Kubica, meanwhile, is set to remain with Renault, according to the Polish driver's manager. Kubica joined the team in October but Renault's decision to sell a significant stake to the Luxembourg investment group Genii Capital raised doubts about his future. "We are going in the right direction," Daniel Morelli said. "There were no doubts, really, but it was very important we understood who were in the key roles in the team and of course also the budget – it is fundamental you have that for the updates to the car." Kubica raced for BMW-Sauber last season and signed for Renault after BMW decided to withdraw from the sport, but it is likely he had an escape clause in his contract which covered a change of team ownership.