Flavio Briatore may take legal action against motor sport's governing body and his case was today backed by a member of the panel which banned him from Formula One.

The flamboyant Italian is reportedly “distraught” after he was suspended indefinitely from all FIA-sanctioned activities after yesterday's Paris hearing into the race-fixing scandal at last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

The 59-year-old is thought to be planning a challenge in the courts and Carlos Gracia, Spain's motor sport federation chief who was on the 26-man panel that heard the evidence and handed down the punishment, says Briatore could have a good case.

“Briatore's penalty seems to me excessive,” said Gracia. “There was no clear proof against him and he was not able to defend himself either. I wouldn't rule out him going to ordinary justice because he has been left without his means of earning a living.”

The former Renault team principal did not appear at the hearing and believes he has not been given a fair trial by FIA's World Motor Sport Council, who ruled that he had deliberately ordered Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash into a wall in Sinagpore in a bid to gift team-mate Fernando Alonso the race win.

Yesterday's ruling prevents Briatore from continuing to manage several of the sport's top drivers and also threatens his association with Queens Park Rangers.

Football League chairman Lord Mahwhinney has written to the FIA requesting further details but the League's rules say that the owner, prospective owner or director of a club should not be “subject to a ban from a sports governing body relating to the administration of their sport.”

Martin Brundle, who drove for the Renault team in their former guise as Benetton in 1992, said there appeared to be no way back for Briatore in F1 but paid tribute to the man seen as the key architect of Crashgate.

“I never had a problem with Flavio but he's upset a lot of people,” he said. “He's done a lot of things for the sport. But Flavio has been deleted from F1 and he won't be missed that much.”

Renault will make a decision in the next few days over their future in the sport after they were hit with a two-year suspended ban.

The company's F1 team president, Bernard Rey, continually dodged questions over the manufacturer's future in the sport but, in a statement, the team said they would “issue further information in the next few days”.

Speculation has been mounting that they could walk away but Brundle said he was confident they would still be on the grid next season.

The BBC pundit said: “Hopefully they will stay in the sport — they need to. Renault will actually feel slightly relieved as a suspended two-year ban means nothing for them. They're very powerful in the world of motorsport and we don't need them leaving F1.”

The more likely outcome is that the French manufacturer will name a new team principal.

Four-time world champion Alain Prost, who drove for Renault from 1981-83, is the favourite to take over the post but insists he had yet to open formal talks with the team.

Describing the link as an “honour“, he dismissed reports linking him to the post as “rumours” and said that “no one from Renault had been in contact”.