SHANGHAI (AFP) — Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello hit back Friday after "bitter" Renault boss Flavio Briatore stirred up a new row when he slammed the FIA's decision to support Brawn GP's diffusers.
As the opening day's practice began with Brawn again climbing to the top, Briatore ridiculed the outcome of the International Motoring Federation (FIA) International Court of Appeal in Paris on Wednesday.
He said it was now virtually impossible for the sport's "big four" teams, with star drivers and massive budgets, to overhaul Brawn and the "gang of three" who found a loophole in the regulations.
"The drivers in our teams have been, and are, world champions, while the championship is now fought between a driver who was almost retired and another one who is a good guy, but a paracarro (Italian saying for being slow)," he said.
Briatore is believed to be referring to Barrichello and Button.
"I don't know where credibility has ended up with all this. To make up the gap we have to those teams is impossible," he added in the interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.
"In just three or four Grands Prix, the title will be already decided, and I can't see what interest TV and spectators can have in seeing a race when Button has 60 points, (Kazuki) Nakajima 50, and someone else 80."
In Friday's practice, Briatore was proved right as Renault's two-times champion Fernando Alonso wound up 19th and defending champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren was 13th.
Ferrari stars Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, also a former champion, were 12th and 14th respectively.
But Button and Barrichello launched a sting response to comments.
"I think that what he said is stupid. Really. What a comment. If we all think that we need Ferrari and McLaren to win, why are the others here?" said Barrichello.
"There are plenty of good people in the paddock and plenty of bad losers."
Button added that Briatore was obviously "a very angry man".
"We have produced a very competitive car because of the workforce we have at Brackley in England and you cannot take it away from them, it is very unfair to say that," he said.
"They have worked very, very hard in very difficult circumstances and it is very, very unfair for Flavio to comment as he has just because he is a little bit bitter."
As the row escalated, another spat emerged.
This involved Ferrari seeking clear-the-air talks after claims that Williams chief executive Adam Parr had questioned the legality of the Italian team's title-winning cars of recent years during the Paris hearing.
Parr, it was said, had countered Ferrari's protest at the Williams diffuser by questioning their interpretation of previous rules.
"I was told someone said that Ferrari won the championship with an illegal car. I was astonished to hear that -- and surprised that Ross Brawn did not try to respond either," said Ferrari chief Stefano Domenicali.
"But it is something I want to discuss with Adam because I think it is something where you need to be responsible in what you say."
Parr denied he intended to suggest that Ferrari or Renault had used illegal cars. He had also referred to Renault during the hearing.
"I think that there has been a very fundamental misunderstanding of what happened in the court on Tuesday," said Parr.
"I want to be absolutely clear, on the record, that we have never said and we do not believe that for one minute either the Ferrari cars, or Renault cars, or anyone else's cars, for the last eight years have been illegal."
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