The FIA has announced that together withs its president Jean Todt and medical commission boss Gerard Saillant it will take legal action for defamation against former F1 driver Philippe Streiff.
Streiff had made some comments in the media about the report of the FIA Panel which investigated the Jules Bianchi accident in Suzuka, and the circumstances leading up to it.
An FIA statement said: “The FIA, its President Jean Todt, as well as Gérard Saillant, President of the FIA Medical Commission, are dismayed to learn of the remarks made about them by Philippe Streiff in his recent comments on the state of Jules Bianchi’s health.
“These remarks having been published by certain media, the FIA, Jean Todt and Gérard Saillant categorically state that Philippe Streiff’s insulting and defamatory comments are utterly unfounded and demonstrate malicious intent.
“In view of the seriousness of this deliberate attack on their reputations, they have had to ask their lawyers to lodge a complaint for public defamation and insult so that the circulation of Philippe Streiff’s statements is stopped immediately and sanctioned in an appropriate manner.
“They find it regrettable that this incident only serves to add to the suffering of Jules Bianchi’s family, for whom they would like to reiterate their support.”
Streiff, drove in 52 Grands Prix between 1984 and 1988 for Renault, Ligier, Tyrrell and AGS, finishing as high as third in Australia in 1985. He was seriously injured in an F1 testing accident in Rio in 1989, and has been in a wheelchair ever since.
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog 
Not very surprising, sadly. They went after Gary Hartstein (@FormerF1Doc) for comments he’s made the past few years and tried to get him fired from his job for it.
Let’s face it, unless all 300 odd pages of the report are made public we will never know how good the report really is. The 2 pages it was ‘condensed’ down to were for all intents and purposes a joke.
Nice move Jean, I don’t believe many people knew of Streiff’s comments……until YOU drew attention to them by this suit.
Class act, file suit against a wheelchair bound former driver as opposed to allowing free speech and opinion to flow.
I think it is called the Streisand Effect. Don;t forget also the visit by Saillant to Liege to attempt to intimidate Dr. Gary Hartstein into silence. These people are behaving like schoolyard bullies.
Clearly Jean has never heard of the Streisand effect.
the wee man of inaction springs to action… how commendable.
It certainly is a strange, an ill-advised, event for Todt to finally grow a pair…