Flavio Briatore (; born 12 April 1950) is an Italian businessman, who serves as executive adviser and de facto team principal of Alpine in Formula One. As the longtime team principal of the colloquially known "Team Enstone" (Benetton Formula / Renault F1 Team), Briatore led the team to three World Constructors' Championship and four World Drivers' Championship victories. However, he was dogged by allegations of cheating, including the 1994 "Launch Control" controversy and the 2007 "Spygate" affair, although in both cases his teams escaped penalties. He was forced out of Renault and received a lifetime ban from F1 after the 2008 "Crashgate" scandal, although a French court subsequently overturned the ban. Fifteen years later, he returned to the Enstone team, which currently operates as Alpine F1.
Briatore started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy. He was convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s, receiving two prison sentences, though the convictions were later extinguished by an amnesty. He spent several years as a fugitive in the Virgin Islands and the United States, where he set up several United Colors of Benetton franchises, paving the way for his role at Benetton's F1 team. From 2007 to 2011, he was part-owner and chairman of English association football team Queens Park Rangers.
Early life, convictions, and exile Briatore was born in Verzuolo near Cuneo in the Maritime Alps. His parents were school teachers. After twice failing public (state) school, he attended Fassino di Busca, a private (independent) school, receiving a diploma with the lowest grades in Land Surveying.
Early business career Briatore found early work as a ski instructor and restaurant manager. He opened a restaurant named Tribüla, which was his own nickname. (The term Tribüla refers to "a restless character who will do almost anything to get what he wants." Briatore admitted that the name fit him well.) The restaurant was unsuccessful and had to close due to excessive debt.The Apprentice: flop, inchieste, radiazioni, ma Briatore insegna successo e etica Il Fatto Quotidiano
In the 1970s, Briatore moved to Cuneo and became an assistant to businessman Attilio Dutto, owner of the Paramatti Vernici paint company. Dutto was killed on 21 March 1979 in a car bomb attack by an unknown perpetrator. Briatore then moved to Milan and worked for Finanziaria Generale Italia at the Italian stock exchange.
While working in Milan, Briatore met Luciano Benetton, founder of the Benetton clothing company. When Benetton expanded to the United States in 1979, he appointed Briatore to lead the group's American operations.
Convictions and fugitive years In the 1980s, Briatore was convicted of multiple counts of fraud and received two prison sentences.Flavio Briatore si racconta La Repubblica, by DARIO CRESTO-DINA, 16 October 2005 La Dolce Vita: What really drives Flavio Briatore? The Independent, Tuesday 23 September 2008, Susie RushtonArrestato Briatore , Corriere della Sera, 27 August 1999 In 1984, a court in Bergamo found him guilty of fraud arising from the collapse of Milan's Compagnia Generale Industriale. It sentenced him to a prison term of one year and six months (reduced to one year on appeal), as well as a fine. In 1986, a court in Milan found Briatore guilty of fraud and conspiracy; he helped a ring of confidence tricksters that recruited gamblers to play rigged card games. He received a three-year sentence (reduced to one year and two months on appeal).
To avoid imprisonment, Briatore fled the country and lived as a fugitive in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands. He did not return to the EU until his convictions were extinguished by amnesty.Arrestato Briatore, Corriere della Sera G. Barbacetto, Briatore. Finito contro un muro, in Il Fatto Quotidiano 27 September 2009, p. 14. In 2010, a Turin court ordered Briatore rehabilitated, which by Italian Criminal Code results in the extinction "of any criminal effect of the conviction".
In 1999, the Corriere della Sera reported that Briatore had been arrested in Nairobi on suspicion of fraud relating to real estate in Kenya. Briatore successfully sued the newspaper for libel and received compensation.
Life in exile During his exile, Briatore continued working for Benetton. By 1989, there were 800 Benetton stores in the United States, which was attributed to Benetton and Briatore's franchising methods. Briatore became very wealthy, as he received a cut of every franchising agreement. Briatore also opened some Benetton stores in the Virgin Islands. However, store operators complained that Benetton sold too many franchises, which created excessive competition.
Formula One Benetton Formula
In , the Benetton family purchased Formula One team Toleman Motorsport, which it then renamed to Benetton Formula. At first, Briatore (who was not interested in auto racing) was not involved with the team. He did not attend a race until the 1988 Australian Grand Prix, the final race of the season. However, in 1989, the Benetton family reassigned him to manage the team's commercial operations. He assumed full control of the team in 1991, and eventually acquired a 30% personal stake in the team.
Under Briatore's leadership, "the rebel F1 team became a part of the establishment" and won three world championships. The Independent wrote that Briatore's "cut-throat tactics" and commercial savvy "helped [] push F1 towards its current hyper-commercial state." Briatore aggressively brainstormed ideas to improve the level of competition in Formula One, including starting races in reverse grid position after qualifying and sending out a pace car to artificially restrain front-runners who were more than 12 seconds in front.
However, Briatore angered members of the Formula One establishment, in part for his vocal opposition to the upward trend of costs in Formula One. In , he used his leverage to force the then-dominant Williams team to agree to limits on engine changes and qualifying procedures. Williams had blown a deadline to file its entry paperwork for the 1993 season, and Briatore (all team principals had a veto) refused to let Williams compete in 1993 until Frank Williams "listen[ed] to [him]" on costs. The move was deemed "grossly unsporting" at the time, but Briatore's position ultimately won out. Led by Alain Prost, Williams won a double world championship that year.
Building a team Briatore's skills lay primarily on the commercial side of the sport, and he reportedly "revelled in his technical ignorance of F1" from day one. Even so, he built a "super team" of talented engineers at Benetton. He started by hiring celebrated chassis designer John Barnard, but existing designers Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds disliked working with Barnard. In 1990, Byrne, Symonds, and 11 other engineers quit en masse to join the abortive Adrian Reynard F1 project. To Symonds' surprise, Briatore stayed on good terms with him and Byrne, and convinced them to return at the end of the season; Barnard was fired. Briatore also hired Tom Walkinshaw and Ross Brawn. In 1992, the team moved to a new facility at Enstone, Oxfordshire, where it remains to this day.
Briatore also became famous for his "hard-nosed" approach to hiring and firing drivers; Motor Sport noted that over the years, "Johnny Herbert, Martin Brundle, Jos Verstappen, JJ Lehto and Jarno Trulli all felt the full force" of Briatore's wrath.
Recruiting Schumacher Briatore lured rookie driver Michael Schumacher from the Jordan team after his first F1 race in . The Times observed that Briatore knew Schumacher could be the best and built a team around him at Benetton.
The circumstances of Schumacher's move were controversial. Reportedly, Schumacher had signed a letter of intent to sign "a contract" with Jordan for 1991 to 1993, but once Briatore grew interested, Benetton and Schumacher's management interpreted the letter as allowing Schumacher to satisfy his obligation to Jordan with non-racing contracts. Briatore won a legal battle with Jordan, allowing him to sign the German. Briatore also ousted Benetton driver Roberto Moreno to make room for Schumacher, arguing that Benetton's deal with Moreno only obliged Briatore to supply him with a chassis, not an engine. Moreno eventually accepted a buyout. According to Briatore, Moreno's teammate Nelson Piquet was so upset by Briatore's treatment of Moreno that he temporarily quit the team, and Ayrton Senna also criticized Briatore's actions. Briatore convinced Piquet to return by threatening to replace him with Alex Zanardi.
Briatore subsequently enraged Schumacher by violating a clause in the German's contract mandating that Benetton had to match the salary paid to any driver besides Senna, Alain Prost, or Nigel Mansell. Briatore gave Riccardo Patrese a $3 million contract for the 1993 season, which exceeded Schumacher's $2 million salary, but did not tell Schumacher about it. Reportedly, Patrese disclosed his salary to McLaren's Ron Dennis, who leaked the information to Schumacher's camp. Using Briatore's duplicity as leverage, Schumacher negotiated a significant raise for the 1994 season.
Titles and cheating allegations
As the team improved, Schumacher won two races in and , and claimed the World Drivers' Championship in and .
During the season, Benetton was accused of multiple forms of cheating. Although Formula One had banned electronic driver aids ahead of the 1994 season, it was later revealed that Benetton had retained illegal software, although it remains disputed whether Benetton ever used it. Benetton's second driver, Jos Verstappen, claimed that Briatore knew about the software and encouraged him to "not talk about it." However, the Liverpool Data Research Associates, called in by the FIA after the San Marino Grand Prix to investigate allegations of cheating using banned driving aids, concluded that the illegal software likely was not used by Benetton during the Grand Prix, leading the FIA to take no action against the team.
In addition, an investigation into a fire during a Verstappen pit stop revealed that Benetton had discarded a regulation fuel filter to speed up its pit stops, although Briatore escaped punishment after pointing out that multiple teams had done the same thing. Schumacher received a two-race ban for ignoring a black flag (under instructions from the team) at the , and controversially clinched his first title by colliding with his closest competitor at the .
Following Schumacher's 1994 title season, Ferrari's Umberto Agnelli offered Briatore a job at the Scuderia, but Briatore declined, citing his ownership stake in Benetton. Instead, Briatore upgraded Benetton further by buying the Ligier team—one of the only Formula One teams with a contract for the dominant Renault engines—and transferring its Renault contract to Benetton. (Briatore was not the only person with this idea: McLaren's Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh had previously sought to buy Ligier because their star driver, Ayrton Senna, wanted a better engine.) With Renault power, Benetton won the 1995 Constructors' Championship, and Schumacher defended his Drivers' Championship. Byrne and Symonds claimed that their 1995 victory vindicated them after the accusations of 1994.
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