A Formula 2 racer has been banned from the roads after posting a video of himself driving at high speeds on social media.
Amaury Cordeel posted a video on TikTok, in which he could be seen driving at speeds up to 179km/h on a stretch of road where the limit was 50km/h. The offence was committed on December 1, 2020, but the court case was only concluded at the end of last month.
HLN reports Cordeel, 20, denied the charges after police chose to prosecute after being alerted to the video, which was subsequently deleted. He is reported to have told the court: "I couldn't possibly have driven, because I didn't have a driver's license at all at the time."
But HLN claims Cordeel failed to tell the court that he had bought one online for 450€. In the F2 driver's defence, his lawyer argued that there was not enough evidence to definitively say that his client was the one behind the wheel at the time of the offence.
"There can be no link whatsoever between the video and the fact that my client was driving," the lawyer said. "It was his father's car, but otherwise there is enough doubt to say that he was not driving."
But the court rejected that argument, and Cordeel was found guilty – the judge ruled that there was enough evidence to convict the 20-year-old.
Cordeel was fined £3,100 and handed a six month driving ban. To get back behind the wheel of a road car, he will have to retake his driving test once that ban has been served.
It is not yet known what impact the conviction could have on Cordeel's racing career. Unlike in Formula 1, F2 drivers are not required to hold a standard driving licence – but the FIA's focus on road safety means the governing body may well take a dim view of his actions.
F2 chief executive Bruno Michel told Motorsport.com : "It's probably something that will have to be discussed with the FIA, to see how to deal with it and whether to do anything special. We can't ignore that fact, that's for sure. I can't really answer your question, but it's something we definitely need to discuss with the FIA, to see how to handle it."
