Crashgate: Briatore claims innocence as ban lifted

Flavio Briatore has come out fighting after having his lifetime ban from Formula 1 overturned by a French court.

The former boss of the Renault F1 team, who was thrown out of motor sport for his role in the 'crashgate' scandal, is now insisting that he is innocent of any involvement in the plot and has threatened to sue his former driver Nelson Piquet Jnr who blew the whistle on the affair.

"The bad that has been done to me won't be forgotten in one day," he warned after the case, saying it was "very likely" he would take legal action. When the allegations first emerged he made similar threats against the Piquet family, accusing them of blackmail.

Briatore told the BBC: "The last few months have been very difficult for me. It is great that I have my dignity and my freedom back and this is the most important thing."

The Italian also hinted that he could take action against drivers who ended their association with him after the ban was imposed. Before the scandal broke Briatore managed several drivers, including Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso, but they were warned they could lose their licenses if they continued to work with Briatore after he was banned.

"Except for [Heikki] Kovalainen and [Lucas] di Grassi, my relationship with the other drivers has never changed," said Briatore. "We'll analyse the situation with the lawyers to see whether we should take legal action against anyone who has broken the contracts with us."

Although Briatore can now participate in motor sports again, the French court ruling did not exonerate him from involvement in the scandal, which saw Renault driver Piquet Jnr deliberately crash out of the Singapore Grand Prix of 2008 in order to help his team mate Fernando Alonso. Yet the former Renault boss has claimed that the FIA action against him was borne out of bad blood between him and the FIA president Max Mosley.

But with Mosley standing down, Briatore said he expects to get on much better with the body's new president Jean Todt. Another friend of Briatore would appear to be Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 commercial rights holder, who criticised the ban when it was imposed. Ecclestone described Briatore as a "great character" and said: "He is welcome to come back to the paddock." ·