Manipulation, insurance fraud, tax evasion, conflicts of interest, and prison sentences. These are not necessarily the competencies or characteristics you would expect from an Executive Advisor of a publicly listed and globally operating multinational. You would expect companies of that scale to do everything possible to remain compliant and not to tarnish their reputation. But there are always exceptions…
And so, Flavio Briatore (75 years old, pictured on the right) has been at the helm of the Alpine F1 team, part of the Renault Group, for a few months now. Officially, he is not the team boss, as he lacks the required FIA license, but Renault does not shy away from setting up a facade. Formally, Briatore is an Executive Advisor. On an interim basis, he is tasked with getting things back on track following the sudden departure of Oliver Oakes in early May.
Oakes left for Dubai abruptly on the Sunday evening following the Miami GP. For personal reasons. Coincidentally or not, his brother (and business partner) William had been arrested a few days earlier with large sums of cash on suspicion of laundering Russian money and criminal activities.
At Renault, the screening of new personnel could be a bit sharper, it seems. Especially in the case of Briatore, the potential risks of a possible appointment should have been carefully mapped out in advance, for example in terms of reputational damage.
Because let’s be honest, Flavio Briatore was – and is – more than just wrong. In F1, he achieved successes with Michael Schumacher at Benetton and later with Fernando Alonso at Renault, but he will mainly go down in history as the evil genius – along with technical director Pat Symonds – behind Crashgate. For those who don’t remember: in 2008, Nelsion Piquet Jr. was instructed to deliberately crash during the Singapore GP to favor his Renault teammate Alonso.”The scandal came to light later, resulting in the flamboyant Italian being banned for life from all motorsport activities under the FIA flag. A French court later overturned this, but until this year, he held no official position in the paddock. However, this did not prevent him from regularly – and without any shame – visiting races, especially in his capacity as manager of various drivers.
At Alpine, the need is high and the options are thin. Otherwise, it is inexplicable that they have partnered with someone like Briatore. Of course, the man brings a lot of knowledge and experience and knows better than anyone what it takes to achieve success: a big mouth, an extensive network, a lot of money, and two good drivers.
At the moment, Briatore only has one, Pierre Gasly. The second seat is also a headache at Alpine, somewhat similar to Red Bull.
Last year, Gasly clashed on and off the track with Esteban Ocon, who later fled. This season, Jack Doohan was allowed to flounder for six races before Briatore, who manages him, ruthlessly criticized the Australian and brought in Franco Colapinto. Colapinto is not doing much better and is now on the chopping block. Meanwhile, Alpine is simply last in the constructors’ championship. The French approach is not paying off so far.
And Briatore? Personally, I think it’s quite nice that he’s back in the paddock. He adds color to the sport in an unconventional way. But Renault – and also FIA and FOM – should never have let this happen. At Renault, they are already thinking about a long-term team boss. Christian Horner’s name has been mentioned. Well, you wouldn’t expect that…
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