Briatore claims he turned down Ferrari twice https://www.planetf1.com/news/briatore-claims-he-turned-down-ferrari-twice/ The 69-year-old Italian, previously in charge of Benetton and Renault, said he first spoke to the Scuderia in the mid 1990s before another approach was made when Luca di Montezemolo was president of Ferrari. “The first time was between 1994 and 1995,” Briatore told Italy’s Autosprint magazine. “I spoke seriously to Dr. Umberto Agnelli, but I was too busy with Benetton, with whom I also had a 30% stake in the team. “In more recent times I spoke to Luca di Montezemolo when he was president of Ferrari, but we were unable to find an agreement.” Briatore went on to say that he has no plans whatsoever to rejoin Formula 1 even though he is still seen on the grid to this day. “F1 is like chickenpox, the virus catches you only once,” Briatore said. “I spent many years there, I won what others have never won, I had fun.” Briatore was also asked which drivers he would have in his dream team if he were still in a management role, he replied: “I would take Leclerc and Verstappen. “There are two phenomenal talents with who I would win all the Grand Prix and the World Championships in the next ten years. “The car? It would have to have a Ferrari engine because today it is the strongest and a Mercedes chassis because it is also the best in aerodynamics.”
He is well past beyond his "selling date limit" or "limit date of freshness", as we say in French ("date limite de fraîcheur"). Now he is only recycling old news...looking at the past...trying to make us believe that he still has a say in all matters regarding F1. In a way, rather pathetic. Remember he was the one who encouraged Fernando Alonso to arm-wrest Luca Di Montezemolo and Sergio Marchionne, first to negociate Fernando's exit from the Scuderia before the contactual term, then negociate Fernando's staying...result: Vettel took Fernando's seat, and Fernando ended at McLaren-Honda. With the success we are all aware of. Well done Flavio. And what about the 2009 crashgate? Truth is that after Renault's titles in 2005 and 2006, Flavio has only gone downhill...Good bye Flavio, enjoy your retirement. Looking more and more a relic from a distant path to me. I pay no attention to what he says. Rgds
He sued FIA about that and won. As team managers don´t need a FIA license, FIA can´t ban them forever. Just a moral victory: Flavio was so full of **** after that Sinagapore thing that nobody wanted to touch him.
Briatore started his career as a fraudster. For unknown reasons he got the suppport from the Benetton family and the rest is history. Listen to any of his interviews and you grasp within minutes that he is very ignorant and uninteligent. He was completely clueless about the technical and sport side of F1, much like Arrivabene.
You can say anything about Flavio Briatore, but 4 WDC titles were won under his leadership when he was team principal. Not many can say that !! Granted, he was maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed in terms of technology, but he knew how to run a team. I agree that he was a bit of a rogue, but he was also shrewd. Most of his success was also"low-cost" as neither Benetton nor Renault spent the same amount of money as rival teams.
Well, he had Brawn running the technical side for him, hadn't him? Don't take me wrong, I do believe the guy might have some talent, vision, or perhaps management skills... But those seem to be very hidden because I have never ever heard him saying something inteligent.
[QUOTE="Flavio_C, post: 146992269, member: 123124" Don't take me wrong, I do believe the guy might have some talent, vision, or perhaps management skills... But those seem to be very hidden because I have never ever heard him saying something inteligent.[/QUOTE] From what I've seen of Bernie Ecclestone....couldn't the same be said of him?
He was unmoral even for F1 standards. He made a customer team with Ligier when it was not legal at all, he hired drivers who managed himself and, well, you know the rest: the fire at Germany '94, Singapore, etc... And listening to him you understand that he even is proud of being a bastard. But he couldn't be bad at his job with the results he got. For good and for bad, he's already history of the sport.
Those men, Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore, Ron Dennis or Frank Williams got to the top the hard way.
Yes. But I'd put the first two in another level of immorality. Also Ron Dennis and Frank Williams really started from the bottom. Briatore started doing tax evasion and selling clothes, and he didn't give a **** about cars. For him F1 was just another business.
Alan: "tongue-in-cheek", of course? you know that there is no substance whatsoever in that story, even if Bernie likes to maintain it alive... [...] 1. The Bernie Ecclestone connection Completely unfounded rumours about the involvement of the Formula One supremo have circulated for years, prompting him to make the cheery denial that "there wasn't enough money on that train". There is a tiny connection in that one of the robbers, the late Roy James, who had been a professional racing driver, wrote from prison to the former champion Graham Hill, asking for help with his career when he came out. He was told he was wasting his time if he hoped to return to the track. But James was an accomplished silversmith and ended up making trophies. [...] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/08/great-train-robbery-10-things Rgds
Bernie Ecclestone was a dodgy second-hand car dealer who made good by setting up what was probably the first car auction network in Britain. The typical self-made man.
Flavio seems to be just one of the "characters" that show up in every field. Maybe a year or two ago there was a 60 Minutes news story on Monaco, just looking at the people that live there and how unique the country is, and sure enough one of the residents they talked to was Flavio! Right now I'm reading Jenson Button's newest book, and in his short chapter on team managers and other personalities, he sums up Flavio as the kind of guy that says one thing to you in person and then says the opposite in public, so Jenson wasn't a big fan and prefers people that tell it straight.
Bernie being Bernie, he takes great pleasure in never settling the story completly, and leaving always a small space for doubt... He never says "No, I didn't do it", but answers obliquely, such as: "there wasn't enough money for me in that train anyway"... But there are absolutely no clue to him being associate in it. As said in the "Guardian" article, the only - distant - link was Roy James. Rgds
Many CEO’s aren’t the smartest in their company but ...they are shrewd in other ways and usually have razor sharp instincts. Flavio deserves credit for the W’s he posted while at the helm. What is point in trashing the guy? My favorite new question this week is this: do you prefer a little vulgarity and winning or elegance and losing? Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app
Hi Nerofer, hope you are well. See you in Paris during retromobile? Anyway if there was a clue he would have been prosecuted and I always felt he had a role, his twisted mind DNA seems to be recognizable in how that robbery was plotted;-) It brings to mind the great movie made about it with David Niven, JP Belmondo, Bourvil, Eli Wallach etc here link but in French no subtitle: https://ok.ru/video/779032660622
Where did I trash the guy? I did say he probably has talent... My point is that in his interviews (I speak Italian too) he is far from appearing intelligent. Also, it's not trashing by pointing out the fact that he was a convicted fraudster in the beggining of his career. Trust me, in Italy when someone is convicted of fraud it's certainly that before he got away with way, way worse stuff.
I'll start off by saying that I don't believe he was involved. Having said that I don't dismiss it just because he and others now make jokes about it. There is a long thread somewhere on 'The Nostalgia Forum' in the Autosport magazine forums from years ago that goes into great depths about that and other motorsport related criminals. One of the the convicted criminals involved in the great train robbery was a racing driver, knew and had contact with Bernie in other ways. There's other stuff as well, but it's years since I read up on. As I say, not I don't think he was involved, but there is lot's of circumstantial evidence that he may, or may have known about it.