Flavio Briatore is back in Formula 1.
The former Benetton and Renault director has been hired as an executive advisor to Alpine, Renault’s current factory team. The 74-year-old Briatore was banned from Formula 1 for life before the suspension was overturned on appeal in 2013.
Briatore was banned from Formula 1 due to Renault’s 2008 deliberate crash scandal. He told Nelson Piquet Jr. that he had to crash on purpose during the Singapore Grand Prix so that teammate Fernando Alonso could win. The incident quickly became known as ‘Crashgate’.
Piquet crashed early in the race, just before the pit window opened for teams. Alonso had made a pit stop earlier in the race and took over the lead when the race leaders entered the pit lane at the time of Piquet’s crash. Alonso, who had started 15th, won the race.
A year later, after being removed from his seat, Piquet said he was told to purposely crash the car. The FIA immediately investigated Piquet’s claims and accused Renault of race fixing in September 2009. Renault was ultimately given a two-year conditional disqualification from the series pending further rule violations – the team was not actually expelled from F1 – and Briatore, Renault’s then director, was given a life ban.
Briatore was previously convicted by an Italian court in the 1980s for several fraud cases. He took over as Benetton’s managing director in the late 1980s and continued to work for the team after Renault bought the team in 2000.
Alpine is in the midst of a miserable start to the 2024 Formula 1 season. The team sits eighth out of ten in the constructors’ standings, while Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon have only scored five points between them this season. Gasly and Ocon are plagued by a lack of speed and mechanical problems, and they also don’t get along well on the track. Ocon will leave the team at the end of the season and is considered a candidate to drive for Haas alongside Ollie Bearman in 2025.
