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PARIS: Former Renault chief Flavio Briatore announced on Sunday he was taking legal action challenging the life ban he received from the FIA for his role in the Nelson Piquet junior crashgate affair.
In a statement Briatore described last month's punishment as "a legal absurdity" and expressed confidence that the High Court in Paris would find in his favour and quash the FIA's ruling.
The flamboyant Italian stood down as Renault team principal in mid-September, days before motorsport's governing body kicked him out of Formula One for his role in ordering Piquet junior to crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help fix the race for teammate Fernando Alonso.
Confirming a report that had appeared in a French Sunday newspaper Briatore said he was starting legal proceedings in the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance (High Court) on Monday.
Spelling out the main grounds for his action Briatore listed the FIA's "deliberate breach of rights of the defence, a breach of the rules of natural justice and the FIA's manifest excess and abuse of power".
Briatore plans to challenge what he claimed was the FIA's lack of impartiality and the disproportionate and illegal nature of an indefinite boycott.
He added: "In this case the FIA has been used as a tool to exact vengeance on behalf of one man.
"This decision is a legal absurdity and I have every confidence that the French courts will resolve the matter justly and impartially."
Briatore, who is also seeking damages estimated in the French press at between 500,000 and one million euros, felt the full brunt of the FIA's disciplinary might in the September 21 hearing.
The inquiry also handed out a five year suspension to Renault chief engineer Pay Symonds while the team itself received a two-year suspended ban from the sport.
Alonso was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Briatore's ban for conspiring to fix the Singapore race was described at the time as excessive by F1 rights holder Bernie Ecclestone but was defended by FIA president Max Mosley.
Mosley, speaking after the Renault hearing, commented: "Briatore's problems were that he denied and continued to deny it even when it had become clear that he was implicated."
"He can no longer be associated with a team, with a championship. He can no longer get into the paddock of a FIA event. He can no longer be a driver's manager," added Mosley of Briatore who had management contracts with Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen, Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean and Piquet Jnr.
"It's sad to see a career end like that, but what else could we do?" added Mosley after the hearing. - AFP/de
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