Flavio Briatore. Biography

Hi all...

I decided to dilute my previous posts and write about a very interesting personality... Flavio Briatore, who is he? For those who are not in the know, it was he who discovered Fernando Alonso and Ross Brown to the world, but for everyone else, it was he who believed in the young racer Michael Schumacher and discovered him for us, if not for him, we might not have known about Michael.. .

In general, he is an extraordinary and scandalous person... Flavio Briatore is an Italian businessman whose fortune is estimated at 150 million US dollars. And this is only official. Briatore is a regular figure in the Italian tabloids due to his scandalous affairs with top models. He is known as the ex-lover of model Naomi Campbell, with whom he later broke up loudly. With another model, Heidi Klum, Flavio has a child - a daughter named Leni (born May 4, 2004).

How it all began. From selling sausages to managing a Formula 1 team.

Briatore was born on April 12, 1950 in the Alpine town of Verzuolo, Italy. After graduating from the Institute. Facino de Busca, graduated as a surveyor. For some time he worked as a ski instructor in the Alps, then sold sausages directly at the market, and after success he founded a restaurant called Tribula. After some time, Flavio became a famous restaurant manager and partner of restaurant magnate Attilio Dutto. After Dutto was killed by a bomb planted in his car (this is a very dark story of Briatore, in which he was suspected, because he had connections with the Italian mafia), Briatore moved to Milan and took up gambling on the stock exchange, where he met with Luciano Benetton. For some time, Flavio was a manager at Benetton in the United States, leading a chain of clothing stores.

In 1985, the Benetton family bought the Toleman Formula 1 team, renamed it Benetton and soon changed the entire management. Briatore was appointed the new director of the stable in 1988.

Flavio began to actively attract new personnel. He made John Barnard the new technical director of the team, but the speed of his cars did not satisfy the Italians enough, and Barnard was replaced by Tom Walkinshaw (future head of the Arrows team), and then by the well-known Ross Brawn. Briatore also lured the promising Michael Schumacher from Jordan, for this he had to sacrifice the entire leadership and some people who were against Michael’s arrival, but Flavio believed that he was the one he needed. The choice turned out to be successful: Schumacher began winning the very next year; in 1994 there was a difficult championship, where the self-propelled Williamses were an order of magnitude faster than the Benetons, but Flavio’s cunning and Michael’s speed prevailed in the scandalous championship of 1994 and in 1995 Schumacher again became the world champion. Briatore bought Johnny Herbert's contract from the dying Lotus team, and in 1995 his points helped Benetton win the Constructors' Championship. Yes, it was a great year. Benetton received the same powerful engine as Williams and Schumacher simply had no equal, and Herbert, unlike Michael Schumacher's previous teammate Jos Verstapen helped the German.

Schumacher and Brown moved to Ferrari in 1996, and Flavio later admitted that Schumacher had to sign a contract that was simply crazy at that time and continue to grow with the new team, as sad as Flavio himself was. Benetton received Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger in return. The team won only one victory (through the efforts of Gerhard Berger in Germany - 1997), and in 1997, Briatore's relationship with Jean Alesi deteriorated sharply and the Frenchman left the team. The dissatisfied team owners, the Benetton family, parted ways with Briatore and took control of the team into their own hands.

Flavio did not leave the Formula 1 business. Since 1998, the Renault concern has ceased its Formula 1 engine supply program, but the Renault V10, which won the championships in 1995, 1996 and 1997, remained relatively competitive. Briatore founded Supertec and, in collaboration with the Mecachrome factory, continued to supply Renault V10s to Formula 1 teams for three years. Among his clients were ex-colleagues from Benetton.

Supertek engines did not have high power and reliability, and were outdated compared to the new Mercedes, Ferrari and Mugen-Honda. However, thanks to their low cost and relatively good speed, they have gained great popularity among mid-level teams. In the 1999 season, more than a third of the cars at the start of the Grand Prix were equipped with Briatore engines.

During this time, he again became mired in scandals involving tax evasion, theft, and so on. His yacht cost 20 million dollars, at that time it was one of the most expensive yachts

In 2001, Renault and the Benetton family agreed to sell the Benetton team, which was in crisis. Right in the middle of the season, the French automakers appointed Flavio Briatore again as team leader.

Briatore immediately announced ambitious plans to win the World Championship, but it sounded ridiculous because Ferrari and Michael were throwing everyone and everything into the same gate. He bet on his protégé Jarno Trulli (whose manager he was) and the young test driver Fernando Alonso, who was nothing of himself and drove for the outsider Minardi team. Trulli left the team in 2004, not satisfying the ambitions of the team manager, Giancralo Fisechello came in and Alonso became the team's first driver. Under the leadership of Flavio, Renault won the Constructors' Championship in 2005 and 2006, and Alonso won the championship titles. Ferrari could not even compete with them minimally.

Briatore was removed from his post as team leader on September 16, 2009. The reason for this was the case of the initiation of the accident of ex-Renault driver Nelson Piquet at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. On September 21, 2009, by decision of the World Motor Sports Council, Briatore was disqualified for life for fixing Nelson Piquet's accident. Pique created the accident by driving into the fence himself and thanks to this, Alonso won this GP, Flavio thought through everything and Renault, who had not won more than one race before, clearly carried out the trick. Piquet's path further in Formula 1 has been booked

Flavio also had to part with shares in the Queens Park Rangers football club, since, in accordance with the rules of the Football Association of England, the club's directors or owners of controlling shares cannot be persons suspended from activities in any other sport.

Briatore was the personal manager of Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen, whom he brought to the team to replace Alonso, who had left for McLaren. For now, they will be forced to find another manager, as the FIA ​​will not renew the super licenses of drivers associated with Briatore to one degree or another.

After this, Briatore settled down and finally started a family. On June 18, 2008, Briatore married Italian model Elisabeth Gregoraci. On March 18, 2010, Flavio and Elizabeth had a son, who will bear the original name - Nathan Falco Briatore. His wife finally helped Flavio leave the tabloids of the yellow newspapers.

Flavio later filed a lawsuit to return to Formula 1 and after endless legal proceedings a verdict was reached. Briatore has committed to abstain from leadership positions in Formula 1 until December 31, 2012, and from other FIA series until the end of the 2011 season.

Time has expired and he can again take the bridge of the team leader, but he is in no hurry, but enjoys life and gets used to being an exemplary father. He was also in favor of cutting costs and he helped many teams with consultations to switch to the new regulations.

Yes, for me Flavio is a playmaker, a lover of beautiful women, a lover of scandals and social events, but most importantly, he revealed Michael Schumacher to the whole world, he is amazingly able to find a talented driver, make him a World Champion and lead a team, how he is missed...

As always, a bonus, this is a film about Flavio Briatore, it lasts 40 minutes, if you have time, don’t be lazy to watch...

Thank you all... Love Formula 1...

Flavio Briatore is an Italian entrepreneur best known for his successful leadership of the Formula 1, Benetton and Renault teams, which won the Constructors' Championship three times and their drivers became world champions four times.

short biography

Flavio Briatore was born in Verzuolo near Cuneo, Italy, in the Maritime Alps, into a family of primary school teachers. After receiving a diploma in surveying, he began working as an insurance agent. In 1974 he moved to Cuneo, where he worked as a representative of the financial company CONAFI. At the same time, Flavio took up real estate in Sardinia, the Isola Rossa resort complex, which he sold a year later to an entrepreneur from Cuneo. In 1975, Briatore co-founded Cuneo Leasing, the largest leasing company in Italy, which was later acquired by the De Benedetti Group. In 1977, he was appointed managing director of the market leader in paint and varnish coatings, Paramatti.

Meet Benetton

In 1979, Flavio Briatore moved to Milan, where he worked for the financial group Finanziaria Generale Italia. Here he met entrepreneur Luciano Benetton, who would later play a key role in his career.

In the early 1980s, Briatore was involved in gambling cases. He received a sentence, but was later amnestied, and in 2010 he was rehabilitated by a Turin court. Briatore fully paid the damages to the victims.

In the mid-80s, the Italian entrepreneur was in the United States, where, thanks to his close relationship with Luciano Benetton, he opened several clothing stores and actively contributed to the expansion of Benetton into the United States market.

"Formula 1"

Flavio Briatore attended the race for the first time during the Australian Grand Prix in 1988. A year later, Luciano Benetton appointed him commercial director of Benetton Formula Ltd (formerly Toleman), based in England. Soon after, Briatore was appointed managing director and turned Benetton into a competitive team. The Formula 1 manager brought a unique and innovative management style: he saw motor racing as not just a sport, but primarily a spectacle and a business, so he focused on marketing and communication as key elements to attract wealthy sponsors and prestigious partners.

Briatore hired and quickly fired engineer John Barnard. Tom Walkinshaw took his place and together they began to restructure Benetton. In 1991, Briatore quickly and astutely brought in young driver Michael Schumacher from Jordan and began building a team around the talented German. In 1994, Schumacher won the Drivers' Championship, and then Briatore managed to form a strategic alliance with Renault, which gave Benetton the added advantage of a very powerful engine the following season. The team achieved double success in 1995 when Schumacher won the World Drivers' Championship and Benetton Formula won the Constructors' Championship.

In 1993, Briatore created the racing driver search and management agency FB Management, which over the years has served such talented drivers as Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli, Robert Kubica, Max Webber and Pastor Maldonado. World champion Fernando Alonso, whom Briatore discovered and placed under the care of his agency in 1999, was only 18 years old.

At the end of 1994, the Italian entrepreneur acquired the French Ligier team, restructured it and two years later it won the Monte Carlo Grand Prix with Pani. In 1997, Briatore sold Ligier to Alain Prost, who renamed it Prost Grand Prix (the team folded in 2002).

In 1996, he bought Minardi and a year later sold it to Gabriela Rumi. That same year, Michael Schumacher left Benetton and moved to Ferrari.

In 1997, with the consent of the Benetton family, Briatore decided to leave the team, selling his shares in order to finance and lead his new project, remaining in Formula 1. He created the company Supertek, which employed 200 people and became the leading supplier of engines to Formula 1. From 1998 to 2000, Supertek supplied engines to the Benetton, Williams, Bar and Arrows teams. .

Children's shoes and pharmaceuticals

In the mid-90s, Briatore decided to diversify his interests. In 1995, he acquired children's shoe manufacturer Kickers and resold it shortly thereafter. Then in 1998 he bought a small Italian pharmaceutical company, Pierrel. It was later acquired by an American group. Thanks to the dynamic and innovative business plan of Briatore and entrepreneur Canio Mazzaro, Pierrel was reconstructed and successfully listed on the Italian stock exchange in 2006. A few years later, it became an international company and was included in the list of awards for achievements in the field of clinical research. In 2007, Briatore sold most of his shares, but still owns a small stake in the company.

Business on luxury

In 1998, Briatore opened a nightclub on the Emerald Coast: Billionaire (“Billionaire”) quickly became a favorite entertainment spot for the world's rich. In just a few years, the establishment has gained international fame, becoming synonymous with glamor and quality relaxation. The brand is now a luxury services holding company that includes nightclubs, beach clubs, restaurants, hotels and resorts.

Renault Team

In 2000, Flavio Briatore orchestrated the purchase of Benetton by Renault and the French car manufacturer appointed him managing director of the Renault F1 team. Two years later he also became managing director of Renault Sport. The Italian businessman overhauled his team of more than 1,100 people across factories in France and the UK with his signature style of cutting budgets, optimizing internal human resources and pursuing an aggressive marketing and communications strategy. Despite the fact that Renault's budget was 5th among Formula 1 teams, Renault F1 progressed quickly and achieved a double victory in 2005: Alonso won the Drivers' Championship and the team received the Constructors' Championship. The same impressive results were repeated in 2006, when Renault F1 took the titles in both championships.

GP2 Series

In 2005, Briatore conceived and created the GP2 series, a championship that was intended to become a proving ground and showcase for talented drivers and engineers. In a short time, GP2 has become the most popular and respected competition series after Formula 1. Racers such as Heiki Kovalainen, Pastor Maldonado and

In 2010, Briatore sold the successful GP2 to the CVC group, which already owned Formula 1.

British football

In 2006, he acquired the English football team Queens Park Rangers. The club's four-year plan saw it rise from the Championship to the Premier League. In 2011, after the first 3 matches in the top division, Briatore and Ecclestone sold the team to Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandez.

Conflict with the FIA

In July 2008, the Formula 1 Team met to form FOTA. Briatore took on the role of its commercial director (appointed by President Luca di Montezemolo) and negotiated with the FIA ​​about the future of Formula 1. FOTA asked for cost cuts due to the global economic crisis and the introduction of new rules aimed at increasing the entertainment of the competition. The federation presented its own plan for the 2010 championship, which led to conflict. Following a meeting organized by Briatore at Renault F1 headquarters on 18 June 2009, the eight FOTA teams rejected the FIA's proposals and decided to break away and organize their own championship. The parties eventually came to an agreement and on 29 June at the World Council, Max Mosley announced his resignation as FIA President, stating that the International Federation would not be introducing any changes in 2010.

Suspension and rehabilitation

Not surprisingly, just a month later the FIA ​​opened an investigation into one of last year's races, the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. The federation accused Briatore, as head of Renault F1, of forcing a driver to fake an accident during the race in favor of the victory of his teammate Fernando Alonso . On September 21, 2009, the FIA ​​World Motor Sport Council (despite confirming the victory of Alonso and Renault), suspended Flavio Briatore from participation in Formula 1 and conditionally disqualified the Renault team. He sued the International Automobile Federation, demanding to restore his reputation, and on January 5, 2010, a court in Paris annulled his suspension, declaring the illegality of the procedure. The tribunal also ordered the FIA ​​to pay 15 thousand euros in damages to Briatore and ruled that he could return to Formula 1 starting from the 2013 season.

Persecution in Italy

In May 2010, Italian customs officers detained the Force Blue yacht on charges of VAT evasion. The owner of the vessel is a company of which Briatore is named as a beneficiary. Prosecutors blamed the fact that the ship was engaged in charter transportation. In July, a judge said Force Blue could resume commercial operations under the supervision of a designated receiver until the case was dismissed. Italy's financial police also seized €1.5 million from Briatore's bank accounts on charges of tax evasion. However, the prosecutor's office overturned this decision and the amount was immediately returned to its owner.

Global expansion

In 2011, Billionaire Life's international expansion continued on all fronts, including the Italian luxury menswear line Billionaire Couture, launched in 2005. The company is a joint venture with the Percassi business group, and the brand's global presence has been steadily growing.

In November 2011, Flavio Briatore launched the first branch of his famous nightclub in Istanbul.

In the spring of 2012, the Italian entrepreneur opened the prestigious CIPRIANI Monte Carlo club and two summer clubs in Porto Cervo: Billionaire Bodrum and Billionaire Monte Carlo.

The ambitious Billionaire Resort, a luxury residential development in Malindi on the Kenyan coast, was completed in 2013. Modern and eco-friendly, the stunning resort is located next to the Lion in the Sun Hotel and Spa.

Today Billionaire Life employs approximately 1,200 people in Europe and Africa.

In April 2013, Briatore gave it a new direction by selling most of its leisure and entertainment divisions, including the Billionaire clubs in Porto Cervo, Istanbul, Bodrum and Twiga Beach Club to prestigious Singapore investment fund Bay Capital. The goal of the alliance is to expand the brand in Asia and the rest of the world.

In September 2012, Briatore starred for the first time in the Italian version of the famous TV show The Apprentice as The Boss. The show gained a cult following and a second season was filmed in 2014.

Flavio Briatore and his women

The Italian entrepreneur, who was constantly involved in scandalous affairs with top models, including Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum, who gave birth to his daughter Helen, married model Elisabetta Gregoraci in 2008. The couple has a son, Falco Nathan, born on March 18, 2010.

I quickly realized that the world is divided into two categories: those who sell and those who buy. Moreover, there are much fewer of the former. I like to be among those who are smaller...

Flavio Briatore

For many years, Formula 1 was a sport for the elite. Moreover, this concerned not only racers and engineers, but also, naturally, team leaders. The most typical examples of sports functionaries, like Ken Tyrrell, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, are people who came out of the “good old” Formula; people for whom commerce, even a very successful one, was just the unpleasant underside of a beloved sport that had become very expensive; people for whom victories, racers and cars always came first
But times are changing. It has become almost impossible to achieve success solely through the enthusiasm of the managers, the skill of the drivers and the technical acumen of the designers in F1. And in the last ten years, other personalities have begun to appear in the Big Prizes - those who have almost no understanding of the design of race cars, but who are excellent at the art of management, manipulating people and maneuvering among many political pitfalls; people who have managed to brilliantly apply management principles in an area that has long ceased to be just sports. The clearest example of this type of leader was Flavio Briatore - a man capable of extracting money out of thin air.

START
They were old friends with Luciano Benton, the owner of a major fashion company, and when Luciano decided to take over the American market, it was Flavio who was thrown into the breach. The campaign ended in complete triumph. Perhaps it was then that Benetton Sr. conceived another bold idea: to throw Flavio into another, not yet very profitable business - the Formula 1 team.
“Once Benetton invited me to London to see how his Formula 1 team works. At that moment, Luciano was only signing the bills. He chose me because I speak English well (here Signor Briatore exaggerated somewhat - his vocabulary remained very meager for quite a long time, and the English press still makes fun of his pronunciation - author's note), and plus everything along with his son Alessandro rented an apartment in England. I went to the races 5-6 times and quickly realized: the team has great potential, but, provided with solid funding, it does not use it in any way, preferring to be content with the minimum possible. That's when I told Luciano - this team can make a world champion. And he suggested that I do this.”
And very soon the Italian businessman came to a surprisingly simple conclusion: “The world of Formula 1 is dominated by absolutely the same methods that I myself used, say, when organizing Benetton’s trade in New York. Formula 1 is all about connections.”

Flavio found himself in the right place at Benetton. He quickly put together a strong team. He managed not only to retain the talented Rory Byrne, but also to get the famous John Barnard, and invited the head of the engineering department, Tom Walkinshaw, to take his place. But the main step (perhaps in Flavio Briatore’s entire F1 career) was the contract with Michael Schumacher. What did the Italian see in the young German? Hard to say. It is now somehow customary to talk about the enormous talent of Michael, who supposedly already in 1991 was simply striking. In the fall of 1991, everything didn’t look quite like that, but Flavio, for the sake of the German, entered into a very unpleasant conflict with Eddie Jordan, showed the door to the most experienced Roberto Moreno, and, they say, even quarreled with Luciano Benetton himself. But, in his opinion, the game was worth the candle. Briatore could not and did not want to wait years to build a winning team brick by brick. He wanted everything at once. That’s why Flavio took a chance and bet big on Schumacher. The rest of the structure was built around the German. And very soon, perhaps even sooner than Flavio himself expected, it began to bear fruit.
The first “fruit” ripened at the Belgian Grand Prix ‘92, when Michael inexplicably found himself ahead of Nigel Mansell, who won absolutely everything that year, and won his first victory. But even then, few would have predicted Benetton's complete triumph in 1994.
Many will say that this success was solely a consequence of the efforts of the German pilot. This is not entirely true. Benetton of those years was Briatore's team. He always knew how to create the best conditions for revealing the talent of each employee. “The decisive factor is the organization of labor,” the Italian liked to repeat. - When I took over the team, it was a team of losers, people with a defeatist mentality. We are the happiest team now!”

A STAIN ON THE REPUTATION
Meanwhile, clouds gathered over the “happiest team”. The well-known communiqué of the FIA ​​technical delegate Charles Whiting about the non-compliance of the regulations of Michael Schumacher's Benetton car has come to light. This was followed by a long and very nervous process of sorting out the relationship. Official documents from that year resemble a detective story. The essence of the conflict is this: already at the San Marino Grand Prix, technical delegates discovered in a Benetton car some devices prohibited by the 1994 rules. The team led by Flavio Briatore did not try to deny the obvious, but only insisted that they are not used in racing. The proceedings dragged on until August. On the one hand, it was absolutely clear that the team was facing withdrawal from the championship. On the other hand, the “force majeure” circumstances of that season, and specifically the death of three-time world champion Brazilian Ayrton Senna, did not allow the FIA ​​to act to the fullest extent of the law. It was impossible to deprive the race of a new leader, a new star. It was like ruining the championship with my own hands.
In the end, everything happened as it happened: Benetton, represented by Michael Schumacher, actively slowed down, disqualifying him from the Grand Prix of Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and Portugal. Considering the severity of the offense, Briatore escaped with “little blood.” How he managed to do this will remain a mystery for now, and perhaps forever.
The archives will list eight (more than in all previous years) Benetton victories in 1994 and eleven in 1995. Most of them were won by Schumacher. But despite all this, the German left the team.
“From the point of view of the general state of things, that is, victories, I was incredibly surprised by his departure. But from a financial point of view, he did absolutely the right thing. They made him a great offer! But... He is still too young, he has seen the world only through the prism of Benetton and must be very careful in the games he begins to play. These are dangerous games,” the Italian admonished the German.
Probably, money really played an important role in Schumacher’s transition to Ferrari, but one can feel that Michael never forgave Briatore for the “black” stain on his career. Indeed, as a result of all these scandals, many still wonder whether Benetton achieved all its victories only due to the talent of the pilot.
As it were. Michael Schumacher left the team. However, Flavio was absolutely confident that nothing bad had happened in terms of prospects: “Benetton has fantastic people, whom I am very proud of and in whom I trust completely.”
Alas, the “fantastic people” whom he personally selected and in whom he was so confident turned out to be too susceptible to the “best financial offers.” Especially in light of the fact that Briatore did not fulfill his monetary obligations to them... And after the two-time champion, almost all those to whom Benetton owed its prosperity gradually migrated to Ferrari: Rory Byrne, Ross Brawn, Ted Czapski.
Thus, the clothing merchant's team found itself "undressed."

But how much Flavio Briatore cared about the team entrusted to him. Back in 1994, he understood perfectly well: victories are victories, but you won’t go far with a Ford. For future stability, he needed an unrivaled Renault. The same Renault that drove Frank Williams' cars. But it was not possible to directly take possession of the French engine, since engines were supplied to only two teams. And then the Italian came up with, and most importantly, carried out a very bold plan. The fact is that the second owner of Renault was Ligier, which was experiencing great financial difficulties. Briatore took advantage of this. Back in 1994, he bought a significant part of the team's shares, and in 1995 he simply took the engine to Benetton. No, the Italian did not leave the unfortunate French “stable” completely without an engine - instead he found her a Mugen Honda - not quite a Honda and certainly not a Renault.
This operation had its own logic: why, tell me, does a team of Ligier’s caliber need such a first-class engine? They will not be able to realize even half of his potential, and Benetton needs him to fight for Michael Schumacher's second championship crown, and finally for the Constructors' Championship.
After the main task was completed, the Italian tried to sell Ligier to his business partner Tom Walkinshaw. However, Guy Ligier actively opposed this. As a result, Flavio remained a co-owner of the French team until February 1997, when he and Ligier ceded their rights to Alain Prost.
Benetton's alliance with Renault lasted another three years, that is, until the famous French motorist left Formula 1.

So, at the beginning of 1996, there was still no sign of disaster at Benetton. Schumacher left, but being in the championship stable looked very tempting for any driver. Briatore instantly handled Jean Alesi and, with a little more creak, Gerhard Berger, making an interesting castling with the “stable” from Maranello. Why did he register Benetton as an Italian team (until 1996 it was listed as English) and staged a fabulous presentation in Taormina with 10 thousand guests. It all looked like a fairy tale. Or rather, its continuation. It was assumed that she would have a happy ending. Having hired two top-class drivers, Briatore seriously set out to completely rebuild the team, which was accustomed to working only for one very specific driver.
“We always dreamed of having two top drivers, but with Schumacher it was impossible. Now everything will change, it will become easier, because there are two of us who do not want any advantages for themselves. And both are capable of winning. I sincerely love Jean, I really like Gerhard, and therefore I look to 1996 not only with confidence in victories, but also with the hope that the golden times of practical jokes, jokes and fun will return to Benetton. We have lacked this in the last two years. True, a lot will have to change. For example, put two cars for testing instead of one, increase the staff, actually create a second engineering team. But we found a new incentive for ourselves, a new motivation, and therefore a new goal. I made great efforts to keep Schumacher, but... Business is business,” Flavio confessed.
However, the pre-season euphoria quickly passed and routine work began. There were no victories, which looked especially discouraging after last year’s triumph. Regulars of the paddock did not fail to take revenge that already, starting from Monaco, coolness in relations between Briatore and the new drivers became noticeable. Having reached sky-high heights with Schumacher, Benetton was least inclined to look for the reasons for failure in its own actions. And they rushed to blame the pilots for all the troubles.
Having lost key figures in 1996, Benetton lost the core that kept the team in fighting condition. But the “stable” was unable to rebuild itself, to create a new structure that would not depend on one or two people. Absorbed by financial issues and clearly not calculating the strength of his team, Flavio Briatore could not ensure even a simple understanding between the drivers and engineers. The agony continued in 1997. The Italian struggled to return Benetton to the top. It didn't work out. Although in 1997 the team's budget was £35 million - much more than in the years when the team won. It wasn't about the money...
At the end of 1997, the Benetton family's patience came to an end. There were rumors that Flavio and Alessandro could not find a common language, that the pirate way of conducting financial affairs did not suit Luciano. Or rather, it’s no longer satisfactory. For in previous years, the years of victories, no complaints about this arose.
The Italian's contract expired and was not renewed.

But Flavio Briatore was absent from the Big Prize paddocks for only a year. In the summer of 1998, it became known that Mecachrome was being replaced as a supplier of Renault engines by Supertec, whose affairs were managed by none other than Signor Briatore. During the year of absence, he managed to work up a decent appetite, so the third - and very rich - team of Craig Pollock BAR was added to the two traditional clients Benetton and Williams. As an experienced traveling salesman, Briatore, before selling the fairly stale goods, made him an excellent advertisement. Rumors spread throughout the paddock about the incredible progress of the “new” unit. It was not in vain that Flavio’s henchmen were grinding the air. Engine prices increased by 30%. Each of the three teams pays $27 million for the right to use the same engine as last year. And now, as in the years of Benetton's prosperity, Flavio Briatore can confidently look his banker in the eye.
He is still among those who sell, not buy!
“I will stay in Formula as long as I am satisfied with myself. I’m not looking “to the outside” yet, but maybe the day will come when I decide to change something and try to find my lost interest somewhere else.”
It is unlikely that Flavio Briatore had in mind only an interest in life.

Lina Holina
"SE" especially for "Formula"

Briatore was born on April 12 1950

IN 1985 1988 Briatore was appointed.

. The choice turned out to be successful: 1994 g. and 1995 1995

1996 1997

1998 1995 G., 1996 g. and 1997

1999

Flavio Briatore is a famous Italian businessman whose fortune is estimated at 150 million US dollars. He is known as a successful Formula 1 manager, leading his team to the Constructors' Championship three times and the championship title four times. Currently head of Renault's Formula 1 division.

Briatore was born on April 12 1950 year in the Alpine town of Verzuolo, Italy. After graduating from the Institute. Facino de Busca, graduated as a surveyor. For some time he worked as a ski instructor in the Alps, then founded a restaurant called Tribula. After some time, Flavio became a famous restaurant manager and partner of the restaurant magnate Attilio Dutto. After Dutto was killed by a bomb planted in his car, Briatore moved to Milan and began gambling on the stock exchange, where he met Luciano Benetton. For some time, Flavio was a manager at Benetton in the United States, leading a chain of clothing stores.

IN 1985 year, the Benetton family bought the Toleman Formula 1 team, renamed it Benetton and soon changed the entire management. The new director of the stables in 1988 Briatore was appointed.

Flavio began to actively attract new personnel. He made John Barnard the new technical director of the team, but the speed of his cars did not satisfy the Italians enough, and Barnard was replaced by Tom Walkinshaw (future head of the Arrows team), and then by Ross. Briatore also lured a promising player from Jordan . The choice turned out to be successful: started winning the next year, and in 1994 g. and 1995 g. became world champion. Briatore bought Johnny Herbert's contract from the dying Lotus team, and 1995 year, his points helped Benetton win the Constructors' Championship.

and Brown moved to Ferrari in 1996 year, Benetton received Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger in return. The team won a few more victories, but 1997 In the same year, Briatore's relationship with Jean Alesi deteriorated sharply and the Frenchman left the team. The dissatisfied team owners, the Benetton family, parted ways with Briatore and took control of the team into their own hands.

Flavio did not leave the Formula 1 business. WITH 1998 year, the Renault concern stopped the Formula 1 engine supply program, but the Renault V10, which won the championships 1995 G., 1996 g. and 1997 remained relatively competitive. Briatore founded Supertec and, in collaboration with the Mecachrome factory, continued to supply Renault V10s to Formula 1 teams for three years. Among his clients were ex-colleagues from Benetton.

Supertek engines did not have high power and reliability, and were outdated compared to the new Mercedes, Ferrari and Mugen-Honda. However, thanks to their low cost and relatively good speed, they have gained great popularity among mid-level teams. In season 1999 year, more than a third of the cars that took to the start of the Grand Prix were equipped with Briatore engines.

IN 2001 In 2009, the Renault concern and the Benetton family came to an agreement to sell the Benetton team, which was in crisis. Right in the middle of the season, the French automakers appointed Flavio Briatore again as team leader.

A former loser, card sharper and fugitive from justice, he introduced Schumacher and Fernando Alonso to the world, fathered Heidi Klum's child, invented jeans with gold buttons and saved the London club Queens Park Rangers from bankruptcy. And then he arranged an accident for his pilot, received accusations of fraud and crashed out of Formula 1 with a bang - and forever. Flavio Briatore is at your service.

The Italian sports panopticon has never suffered from a shortage of colorful personalities. The box is still full of them: Berlusconi's gargoyle, Galliani's penguin man, Collina's bald devil, Massimo Ferrero's teddy bear with the appearance of actor Giancarlo Giannini and the habits of the Animal from The Muppet Show, crazy San Lorenzo fan Pope Francis, plus a series of capitalist simpler crown princes - like Moratti or De Laurentiis. All of them jointly cultivate the corrupt field of Apennine sport of great achievements with its endless scandals, enchanting coaching leapfrogs and periodic exits into great disgrace like Calciopoli. All of them are worthy of their own ode - each in their own genre. Some of them could become the hero of Machiavelli's treatise, some - a novel by Lampedusa, some - a comedy by Castellano and Pipolo. Flavio Briatore in this sense is one hundred percent hero of the purely Italian comic genre - opera buffa, populated by seductive busty maids, charming rogues and defrauded rich men.

Unlike future colleagues in Dolce Vita, Briatore began life modestly. The son of primary school teachers, he twice failed to enroll in public school, so his parents had to tighten their belts and send their son to a private school, from which young Flavio graduated with the worst grades. After working as an instructor at an Alpine resort, Briatore quickly exchanged his low-paying occupation for a more promising career as a restaurant manager. “I can’t stand the cold, I love the sea,” Don Flavio later admitted. True, the Tribula establishment he opened, named after one of the nicknames of the aspiring restaurateur, was soon closed due to debts. The enterprising fellow began knocking on doors already in the role of a traveling salesman, but he grew tired of the faces of ordinary citizens even faster than the smiles of retired tourists, and then he became an assistant to the owner of a paint production company, Attilio Dutto. At this point you can switch to “The Godfather”, because after some time Dutto died while driving his own car from the explosion of a bomb planted by an unknown attacker.

He knows that he revealed Schumacher to the world.

Briatore and Jean Todt (Ferrari) in France.

Having moved to Milan and got a job at the stock exchange, thirty-year-old Briatore met Luciano Benetton. It would seem that this is the basis for a breakthrough into high society; but not everything is so simple in the world of capital without borders. The experienced billionaire did not immediately need a young, daring protégé: first, Flavio had to prove his usefulness and properly prove himself in what he knows best - in the ancient business of cheating. In 1984, Briatore first fell into the gentle clutches of the law - and received a year and a half for fraud. But in 1986, he served three whole years on charges of organizing card games. Don Flavio staged his scams at the highest level, as in the movie “The Scam”: the victims of the prank found themselves in the center of a carefully orchestrated setup with the participation of a special staff of card cheating professionals. After appealing, the great strategist received a final sentence of one year and two months and, preferring resort exile to Lombardy bunks, headed off to the Caribbean. And that’s where Benetton finally needed him.

To begin with, Flavio had to prove his usefulness and properly prove himself in what he knows best - in the ancient business of cheating.

While chilling in the Virgin Islands, Briatore set about building Benetton's overseas empire; opened several stores on the islands, then became director of the company's American branch. Don Flavio turned out to be a dexterous organizer; a white-toothed smile, an unlimited advertising budget, cheap clothes - all this appeals to Americans, so at its peak Benetton USA had eight hundred stores. It was then, in the late 1980s, that our hero began to get very lucky. Firstly, he was granted an amnesty and was able to return to his homeland. Secondly, Benetton had just fired the manager of his Formula 1 team, and Flavio’s candidacy surfaced by itself.

2003

Flavio in Germany hangs out at the UNESCO Gala

In principle, motorsports did not excite him at all; Having barely returned from his Caribbean “imprisonment”, Briatore, at the invitation of his boss, attended his first race - the 1988 Australian Grand Prix - after which in an interview he voiced complete indifference to the entire enterprise. However, having taken over as manager of Benetton Formula Ltd., Don Flavio got down to business. In pure Italian style, he hired and immediately fired the chief engineer. He lured 22-year-old Schumacher from the Jordan team, who soon took his first two championships for the new boss - in 1994 and 1995. It’s funny that in Benetton’s first winning season, 1994, Don Flavio’s true talents made themselves known: the team was checked for possible cheating. The unpleasant situation ended with a two-race ban for Schumacher. It is not surprising that Scummi left after two years, and a year later old Benetton also got tired of the bad smell and fired Briatore himself.

As befits a true survivor, Don Flavio remained in business and founded Supertec, a company supplying Renault engines, which he sold with great success, including to former employers. It is interesting that Supertec engines were not, as they say, a deluxe product and were considered obsolete, but thanks to their cheapness and tolerable speed they were able to gain popularity among mid-table teams that lacked stars from the sky. Soon Briatore was lucky again: Renault bought the team from Benetton and returned Flavio to his previous position, in which our hero’s HR farsightedness was monetized in a new way, quickly and effectively. Seeing a future champion in the Asturian teenager Fernando Alonso, Briatore took him under his wing, made him a test driver for Renault, and then replaced him with Jenson Button. The result is the second pair of titles (2004 and 2005) on the personal account.

2003

And this expression on Flavio’s face happens in Brazil

Well, success with two champion teams is already serious proof of the player’s class; after all, this is the reason why many prefer Cristiano to Lionel. Be that as it may, by the time of the triumphs with Renault and Alonso Briatore had already managed to diversify his business and media portfolio: back in 1998 he founded the Billionaire Couture brand, began opening nightclubs and restaurants, investing in medicines and meeting supermodels. In September 2007, in partnership with Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and Indian tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Don Flavio acquired the Queens Park Rangers club, which was experiencing significant financial difficulties at that time. A big fan of Hitler (“he knew how to get his way”) and women (“they should wear white, like other household utensils”), Bernie Ecclestone is the second, after Benetton, indisputable authority in Briatore’s life, and also, to put it mildly, a personality colorful. However, they failed to gain dust in football: after another scandal, Briatore was accused of not complying with the “English Football League club owner code,” after which QPR was quickly resold to the owner of AirAsia, Tony Fernandez.

And this is what happened. Yes, actually, nothing new happened; Don Flavio just couldn’t hold back again! The old rogue is better than the new two, so Briatore showed his true self to those who preferred to forget about where it was hiding. It was revealed that during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Flavio ordered one of his drivers, Nelson Piquet Jr. (the son of F1's greatest champion Nelson Piquet, which makes the story even more disgusting), to fake a crash in order to help Alonso win the race. The investigation lasted a year, after which Renault was accused of conspiracy to rig the result of the competition. To save the team, Briatore and chief engineer Pat Simmonds were kicked out, and Don Flavio's career as a motorsport tycoon sank into oblivion.

The word "reputation" in Briatore's case does not make the slightest sense.

Briatore himself, however, was almost unharmed. The word “reputation” in his case does not have the slightest meaning, and, as we know, he loves racing only for the money. And in general he believes that this is entertainment for nerds, which lacks Hollywood glitz: “The cars don’t roar like they used to, this is not the sport of gladiators, this is the sport of accountants,” complained 64-year-old Don Flavio last year. But in the world of capital without borders, there is more than just motorsports, so the good organizer Briatore will always have something to do. He recently acquired a must-have accessory for his circle - a yacht, which, however, was immediately arrested during the investigation of another tax scam (“The owner of a yacht is happy twice – on the day he bought it, and on the day he sold it,” he commented philosophically Flavio). But Billionaire is thriving: it seems like everyone has written about the brand’s main hit – jeans with gold buttons (and Jenson Button has nothing to do with it). Well, there will always be buyers for such couture. In any case, while the myth of Flavio Briatore is alive and until the opera buffa, in which he happily plays the main role, ends.

FEMINS FLAVIO

Naomi Campbell

Briatore became, according to conservative estimates, the fifth media boyfriend of the main supermodel of all time - after Mike Tyson, Robert De Niro, Adam Clayton and Joaquin Cortez. Their romance continued intermittently from 1998 to 2003. Of course, they remained friends - Briatore is friends with all his ex-girlfriends. Naomi, in turn, solemnly calls Don Flavio her mentor.