Jim Magilton believes Queens Park Rangers' future is secure even if chairman Flavio Briatore loses his bid to overturn his life ban from motor racing.

The QPR manager claims it will be "business as usual" whatever the result of Briatore's legal action against the FIA, which began in a French court today.

The former Renault boss is challenging the punishment he received from international motor sport's governing body for ordering his driver Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash in last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

If the Italian multi-millionaire loses his legal fight in Paris then he could fall victim to the Football League's "fit and proper persons' test".

That states no person can be a director if he is "banned from the administration of a sport by a sport's governing body".

There is serious concern among QPR fans that if the League ban Briatore from being chairman he could quit the club and billionaire co-owners Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights holder, and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal may follow him out of Loftus Road.

Against this background of uncertainty Magilton has guided QPR into the Championship play-off zone, and is insisting that he will not be distracted from his push for promotion.

The manager said: "Mr Briatore pays me to do my job which is to look after results on the pitch.

"What is happening with him at the moment is completely separate and I have been assured it is business as usual whatever happens.

"My own philosophy is about working with the players. I don't think we have seen the best of them yet so we are still very much a work in progress. I am very happy to do my job here and they let me get on with it.

"If I think we need strengthening in January, I will go to the board and Mr Briatore, who would generally help with these things."

Whether Briatore is still in a position to back Magilton after Christmas will depend on the validity of a number of allegations he has made against the FIA and which will be aired in a High Court in the French capital.

These include: the failure of the FIA to state the charges against him in advance; the lack of access to prosecution documents and to the key witness (Piquet); a lack of impartiality; secret negotiation of the final decision before the hearing; and the granting of selective immunities in order to build the prosecution case (in return for his testimony, Piquet was not punished).

Commenting on his ban, Briatore, who is also seeking almost £1million in compensation from the FIA, said: "This decision is a legal absurdity and I have every confidence that the French courts will resolve the matter justly and impartially."

Renault were given a suspended ban over the scandal but the French car company have yet to confirm whether they will continue in 2010 or follow Honda, Toyota and BMW out of the sport on grounds of cost-saving.

Pat Symonds, the team's former technical chief, was banned from Formula One for five years for his part in Crashgate.