Flavio Briatore
Flavio Briatore
Flavio Briatoreis an Italian businessman. He started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy. Briatore was convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s, though the convictions were successively extinguished by an amnesty. Briatore set up a number of successful Benetton franchises as a fugitive in the Virgin Islands and the United States. In 1990, he was promoted by Luciano Benetton to manager of the Benetton Formula One racing team, which became Renault F1...
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth12 April 1950
CityVerzuolo, Italy
Nigel Mansell became champion after he was 40.
I was at no time directly or indirectly involved in the conduct of these negotiations.
It would be great to have Valentino in F1, but he wouldn't have even a minimal chance of winning,
It would be suicide to have two championships.
There will be more action and the drivers will have to be on the track a lot more.
So when Fernando got alongside him, he didn't fight his team mate. It is not about team orders, it is about working as a team.
I was obviously a bit annoyed at this.
I pay enough. The driver moves around but the team stays. What you need is a solid, efficient team. This attracts a good driver.
I have read in the French press that Renault is going to leave Formula One. These journalists need new jobs - they had false information which they disseminated everywhere. Renault want to stay in Formula One under certain conditions which is the same as Mercedes, BMW, Honda and Toyota. Five us want certain conditions.
I don't think Michael Schumacher forgets how to drive a formula one car. It is just Ferrari having a bad year. Michael does the best possible job with a limited car. But I think Fernando can be as great even if Michael already has seven championships - a crazy number. Fernando has the potential to do that because he is made to be a champion. He is also much calmer than Schumacher. Forget what you see in public - where Alonso is smiling and Schumacher is concentrated. I know them both very well and I promise you Fernando has the ice in his blood - more than Michael, who is boiling inside with feeling.
The GP2 championship costs 0.65 percent of what the Formula One championship costs. I don't understand why GP2 cost $2.5 million and our team and other teams cost maybe between $300 and $500 million. I do not see what the difference is.
The relationship between us and Giancarlo is fantastic,
It will be difficult for Raikkonen to catch him.
Alonso could have attacked Montoya at the end, but he could have also lost everything. We haven't won anything yet.