Flavio Briatore returns to salvage Alpine F1, bridging gaps and spearheading strategic overhauls.
Flavio Briatore has recently rejoined Alpine F1 to manage day-to-day affairs and act as a liaison between CEO Luca de Meo and the team director, Bruno Famin, who has since been replaced by Oliver Oakes. The former Benetton and Renault boss shares how he reinitiated dialogue with de Meo and decided to assist the team.
“I knew Luca de Meo, the CEO of Renault, well before he joined Renault,” Briatore stated. “When he came onboard, I offered him some advice: ‘Formula 1 is a very challenging business. The people you have are not up to par.’ He didn’t listen.”
“After three years, he called me, and we met. He said, ‘we’re completely in trouble with the team.’ And I told Luca, ‘Formula 1 is a different beast. In Formula 1, someone needs to dedicate themselves to the team. It shouldn’t just be another corporate bureaucracy or about team spirit.'”
“One day while we were talking, he asked why I wouldn’t come back to help. That’s how the conversation with Luca began. I know the team, I know the factory, I know everything. So, I told him I had to organize things differently because I didn’t want to attend every race. I didn’t want to live in England, maybe just one day a week, etc.”
“And it happened, you know, it was my old team. With this team, we won seven championships. And it’s a new challenge, a new motivation. I am very happy to return. We have a new team principal with Oliver. There’s Luca, myself, and Oliver who is the team principal, and we work like that.”
A “new Alpine” by 2026 and “a podium in 2027”
Briatore is bold in setting goals, and he believes the team can aim for the podium by the second season under the new regulations: “I promise you, give me two years, in two years you will see Alpine on the podium. By 2027, we will have a podium.”
Briatore admits he does not yet know who will support Pierre Gasly in 2025, but he downplays the significance of this decision in the short term: “I don’t know yet. For now, the driver is not… For now, you need to build the team from a commercial, technical, and management perspective.”
“The driver makes no difference today. The difference will come in 2026, 2027, 2028, and that’s when the difference for the driver will be felt. For me, at this moment, it’s just about the car’s performance. It’s simply about completely restructuring the team.”
“If you have a good car, you need a good driver. Our goal right now is to ensure that we put all our energy into the technical aspect and that the car gets better and better and improves for next year. In 2026, I think we will see the new Alpine.”
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Flavio Explains Why He Returned to the Alpine F1 Team Flavio Explains Why He Returned to the Alpine F1 Team
