The backstory
“In 2026 I will win races, Alpine will be on the podium; then, I don’t know how many we will be able to do“. Flavio Briatore – guest on Radio Rai to ‘Politics in the ball’ – has made no secret of his short-term ambitions following his appointment as Alpine’s F1 consultant. “This year we have many handicaps, we are remodeling the whole team. I have had full powers from Luca de Meo, I’m used to using them and I guarantee that in two seasons we will be talking about podiums“.
The French team has just announced the multi-year renewal of Pierre Gasly and is in negotiations with the Mercedes for the supply of power units starting from 2026 and with Carlos Sainz to not miss out on the best driver currently on the market.
Bernie Ecclestonereached by the Swiss newspaper Blick, revealed that he had a phone call with Luca De Meo (number one of the Renault group) in which the name of Flavio Briatore was mentioned, who was then ‘recruited’ by De Meo to give Alpine new life in light of a technical-managerial situation that was, to say the least, deficient. “I spoke on the phone for a long time with Renault boss Luca de Meo. He was desperate. Then the word Briatore came up. We immediately agreed that only a man of action, a bandit among the angelscould be of help in such a confusing situation. There are already enough saints in the Circus – Ecclestone’s unfiltered words – Flavio’s great strength has always been not to go too long in discussions, to do and think big. You don’t need friends in Formula 1, you just need success.”
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