Flavio Briatore is reported to be considering legal action against the FIA and may set up a series to rival Formula One.
Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport said he was planning to sue the sport's governing body in the Paris courts to try to prove his innocence and win compensation for the damage to his image.
The multi-millionaire co-owner of Queens Park Rangers Football Club is facing an indefinite ban from FIA-sponsored motor sport after ordering Nelson Piquet Jr to crash deliberately during last year's Singapore Grand Prix. His suitability as an owner of QPR is also being assessed by the Football League as a result of the FIA's findings.
"I am distraught," the 59-year-old told the newspaper.
Briatore left Renault last week along with Pat Symonds, the former director of engineering, who was banned for five years yesterday. Renault did not contest the accusations and were given a suspended ban that will last until the end of the 2011 season.
The Italian will no longer retain a role in the management of the GP2 Series, the Formula One feeder championship, and will not be able to continue managing racing drivers, among them four on the present Formula One grid - Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Heikki Kovalainen and Romain Grosjean.
Carlos Gracia, head of the Spanish motor sport federation and a member of the FIA's world motor sport council, said Briatore's life ban was "excessive" and said he expected the Italian to mount a compensation claim.
"Briatore's [penalty] seems to me excessive, there was no clear proof against him and he was not able to defend himself either," he said. "I wouldn't rule out him going to ordinary justice because he has been left without his means of earning a living."
"Personally, I insist that Briatore's penalty seems disproportionate, while I think that a big mistake has been made with Piquet, creating a dangerous precedent," he added.
"Max Mosley has labelled the scandal as a criminal act, so I don't understand how the executor can be reprieved. He is as responsible for the scandal as the rest, and if he's not ready to handle situations with pressure, then maybe he chose the wrong job."
Earlier in the season, Briatore considered setting up a rival series when the teams clashed with the FIA over the proposed budget cap.
Source:The times
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