Flavio Briatore

• 1. Introduction

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  Flavio Briatore named his first restaurant Tribüla, which was also his own nickname. The word describes a restless character who will do almost anything to get what he wants. Briatore, an Italian businessman born on the 12th of April 1950, later admitted that the name fitted him well. That restless streak carried him from a failed dining room to the top of Formula One. Along the way came criminal convictions, years on the run, world championships, a string of cheating allegations, and one scandal that seemed to end his career in the sport for good. How does a man who never cared for racing end up building champions? How does a fugitive who sold clothing franchises become a grand prix team boss? And why would a sport that cast him out ever let him back in?

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• 2. Restless Beginnings

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  Briatore was born in Verzuolo, near Cuneo in the Maritime Alps, to parents who were both school teachers. He twice failed state school. He finished at a private school, Fassino di Busca, with a diploma in Land Surveying and the lowest grades possible.

  His early jobs were as a ski instructor and a restaurant manager. The Tribüla restaurant he opened himself sank under excessive debt and had to close.

  In the 1970s Briatore moved to Cuneo and became an assistant to Attilio Dutto, owner of the paint company Paramatti Vernici. Dutto was killed in a car bomb attack on the 21st of March 1979, and the perpetrator was never identified. Briatore then moved to Milan and took a job with Finanziaria Generale Italia at the Italian stock exchange.

  In Milan he met Luciano Benetton, founder of the Benetton clothing company. When Benetton expanded into the United States in 1979, he put Briatore in charge of the group's American operations.

  The 1980s brought the other side of Briatore's story. In 1984 a court in Bergamo found him guilty of fraud linked to the collapse of Milan's Compagnia Generale Industriale. The sentence was one year and six months, cut to one year on appeal, plus a fine. In 1986 a Milan court convicted him of fraud and conspiracy. He had helped a ring of confidence tricksters who recruited gamblers to play rigged card games. That sentence was three years, reduced on appeal to one year and two months.

  Rather than go to prison, Briatore fled and lived as a fugitive in Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands. He did not return to the European Union until an amnesty extinguished the convictions. In 2010 a Turin court ordered him rehabilitated, which under the Italian Criminal Code wipes out any criminal effect of a conviction.

  In 1999 the newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that he had been arrested in Nairobi on suspicion of fraud over real estate in Kenya. Briatore sued the paper for libel and received compensation.

  Exile did not stop him working for Benetton. By 1989 the United States had 800 Benetton stores, a result credited to the franchising methods of Benetton and Briatore. He took a cut of every franchise agreement and grew very wealthy. He opened stores in the Virgin Islands too, though operators complained that Benetton sold so many franchises that the shops competed with each other. That success earned Briatore a place in the Benetton family's good books just as they bought a racing team.

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• 3. Commercial Instincts

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  Briatore did not attend a race until the 1988 Australian Grand Prix, the last round of that season. The Benetton family had bought the Formula One team Toleman Motorsport and renamed it Benetton Formula. Briatore, who had no interest in auto racing, stayed away from it. In 1989 the family reassigned him to run the team's commercial operations. He took full control in 1991 and eventually held a 30% personal stake.

  Under him, in one description, "the rebel F1 team became a part of the establishment" and won three world championships. The Independent wrote that his "cut-throat tactics" and commercial savvy helped push the sport toward its hyper-commercial present. Briatore also brainstormed ways to sharpen competition. He suggested starting races in reverse grid order after qualifying. He also proposed sending out a pace car to hold back any front-runner more than 12 seconds ahead.

  His loud opposition to rising costs annoyed the establishment. Williams, then the dominant team, missed the deadline to file its entry paperwork for the 1993 season. Every team principal held a veto, and Briatore refused to let Williams race until Frank Williams listened to him on costs. Williams agreed to limits on engine changes and qualifying procedures. The move was called grossly unsporting at the time, yet Briatore's position won out. Led by Alain Prost, Williams still took a double world championship that year.

  Briatore's strengths were commercial, and he reportedly revelled in his technical ignorance of F1 from the first day. Even so, he built a super team of engineers at Benetton. His first big hire was the celebrated chassis designer John Barnard. The existing designers Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds disliked working with Barnard. In 1990 Byrne, Symonds and 11 other engineers quit together to join the abortive Adrian Reynard F1 project. To Symonds' surprise, Briatore stayed on good terms with both men and persuaded them to return by the end of the season. Barnard was fired. Briatore also brought in Tom Walkinshaw and Ross Brawn. In 1992 the team moved to a new base at Enstone in Oxfordshire, where it remains today.

  Briatore also earned a name for hard-nosed hiring and firing of drivers. Motor Sport noted that Johnny Herbert, Martin Brundle, Jos Verstappen, JJ Lehto and Jarno Trulli all felt the full force of his wrath.

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• 4. Schumacher And Suspicion

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  Michael Schumacher had started only one Formula One race, for the Jordan team, when Briatore lured him away. The Times observed that Briatore saw Schumacher could be the best and built the Benetton team around him.

  The move was controversial. Schumacher had reportedly signed a letter of intent to sign a contract with Jordan covering 1991 to 1993. Once Briatore showed interest, Benetton and Schumacher's management read the letter as letting him meet his Jordan obligation with non-racing contracts. Briatore won the legal battle with Jordan and signed the German.

  Room had to be made at Benetton, so Briatore pushed out the driver Roberto Moreno. He argued that Benetton's deal obliged him to supply Moreno with a chassis, not an engine. Moreno eventually accepted a buyout. According to Briatore, Moreno's teammate Nelson Piquet was so upset that he briefly quit, and Ayrton Senna criticized the treatment too. Briatore brought Piquet back by threatening to replace him with Alex Zanardi.

  Schumacher's own contract held a clause that Benetton had to match the salary of any driver other than Senna, Alain Prost or Nigel Mansell. For 1993 Briatore gave Riccardo Patrese a $3 million contract, above Schumacher's $2 million, and told Schumacher nothing. Patrese reportedly told McLaren's Ron Dennis his salary, and Dennis leaked it to Schumacher's camp. Schumacher used the deception to win a significant raise for 1994.

  That 1994 season brought Schumacher his first drivers' title, and it also brought accusations of cheating. Formula One had banned electronic driver aids before the season, yet Benetton was found to have kept illegal software. Whether the team ever used it remains disputed. Jos Verstappen claimed Briatore knew about it and told him not to talk about it. The FIA called in Liverpool Data Research Associates after the San Marino Grand Prix. They concluded the software likely was not used there, so the FIA took no action.

  A fire during a Verstappen pit stop exposed another problem. Benetton had discarded a regulation fuel filter to speed up its stops. Briatore avoided punishment by pointing out that several teams had done the same. Schumacher, following team instructions, ignored a black flag and received a two-race ban. He then clinched his first title by colliding with his closest rival.

  After that title, Ferrari's Umberto Agnelli offered Briatore a job. Briatore declined, citing his stake in Benetton. He instead bought the Ligier team, one of the few with a contract for the dominant Renault engines, and moved that contract to Benetton. Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh had earlier tried to buy Ligier because Senna wanted a better engine. With Renault power, Benetton won the 1995 Constructors' Championship and Schumacher defended his drivers' title. Byrne and Symonds said the victory vindicated them after the accusations of 1994.

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• 5. Exile And Renault

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  Briatore hoped to turn Ligier into a Benetton B-team, so the two could pool costs and share parts. He moved Tom Walkinshaw and Frank Dernie, among other Benetton staff, to the French team. When Ligier unveiled its 1995 car, the racing press mocked it as a copy of Benetton's. Aerodynamicist Willem Toet accused his own team of breaking the rules on sharing information, and he later said it helped drive his move to Ferrari. Dernie defended the work, arguing that Williams and McLaren had copied Benetton's chassis as well.

  Ligier won once under Briatore, when Olivier Panis took the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. Then the team stagnated. Walkinshaw left for Arrows and took Pedro Diniz and his large Parmalat backing with him. French president Jacques Chirac pressured Briatore to sell to a Frenchman, and Alain Prost bought the team.

  Schumacher then left for Scuderia Ferrari. At the end of that year he lured Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn to Maranello. Briatore hit back by signing Ferrari's drivers Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi, but Benetton slid to the middle of the grid. The company replaced Briatore with David Richards.

  Briatore sold his Benetton shares and put the proceeds into Supertec. The company was formed after Renault left Formula One, to supply the old Renault engines built by Mecachrome. Customers included Benetton itself, racing as Playlife in 1999 and 2000, plus Williams and BAR in 1999 and Arrows in 2000. Briatore forced Benetton to pay £17m a year to keep Renault power. He also bought a share of Minardi. When he failed to sell it to British American Tobacco as he had hoped, he sold out to fellow owners Giancarlo Minardi and Gabriele Rumi.

  In 2000 Renault announced its return to Formula One by buying the Benetton team. Briatore came back as managing director and team principal, replacing Rocco Benetton. The team raced as Benetton-Renault in 2001 and became Renault F1 in 2002.

  The driver carousel kept turning. In 2003 Briatore dropped Jenson Button, a future world champion, to make room for Fernando Alonso, a future two-time world champion. Facing public outcry, he promised that "time will tell if I am wrong." He sacked Jarno Trulli in the same year Trulli won the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix. Nelson Piquet Jr. also lost his seat, and later called Briatore his "executioner" and "ignorant about Formula 1". Briatore managed Mark Webber, Heikki Kovalainen and Romain Grosjean as well. When Alonso left for McLaren for 2007, Briatore signed Kovalainen, hoping to find "the anti-Alonso".

  Renault's new president Alain Dassas said in April 2006 that Briatore's contract for 2007 was a key factor in the company's commitment to the sport. Briatore was confirmed as staying for 2007 and 2008 on the 6th of September 2006.

  In November 2007 the FIA alleged that Renault held confidential information about McLaren's 2006 and 2007 cars. A hearing the next month found Renault guilty of breaching the same regulation as McLaren, but handed down no punishment. Briatore struck back at McLaren's Ron Dennis, calling him "not the immaculate saint he pretends to be". Worse trouble was only months away, at a street circuit in Singapore.

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• 6. Crashgate

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  At the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds asked their number two driver, Nelson Piquet Jr., to crash on purpose. The aim was to give his teammate Fernando Alonso an advantage, and Alonso went on to win the race. Briatore later dropped Piquet from the team. Piquet then traded his confession for immunity. Briatore later said, "I was just trying to save the team." He still maintains that he never spoke to Piquet personally.

  In September 2009 the FIA charged Renault with conspiracy and race fixing. Renault and Briatore first threatened to sue Piquet for defamation. Soon afterward Renault announced it would not dispute the FIA's allegations, and that Briatore and Symonds had left the team. On paper Renault came out lightly, with two years of probation. The FIA explained that Renault accepted guilt promptly and unreservedly and made sure the two men left.

  The sporting consequences were harsher. Renault exited Formula One shortly after, and Piquet never raced in the category again.

  The FIA was far tougher on Briatore. The Daily Mirror described his penalty as the harshest ever imposed on an individual in motorsport history. He was banned indefinitely from FIA-sanctioned events. He was also effectively barred from managing drivers, since the FIA said no driver he managed could renew a superlicence. Symonds received a five-year ban. The FIA explained that Briatore got the heavier penalty because he refused to admit guilt despite overwhelming evidence, while Symonds admitted guilt and showed remorse.

  Briatore took the FIA to French courts, demanding reinstatement and €1 million in compensation. On the 5th of January 2010 the Tribunal de Grande Instance overturned the bans on both men. It awarded them €20,000, of which €15,000 went to Briatore. The tribunal said the FIA had no authority to ban other F1 figures from working with the pair. It questioned the quality of the FIA's evidence and suggested Briatore was denied due process, since a council led by FIA president Max Mosley imposed the ban. Mosley's animosity toward Briatore, the tribunal said, "was well known."

  The FIA announced an appeal, but the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement the following April. The ruling made a return possible in theory, yet Briatore expected never to work in F1 again.

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• 7. Return To Enstone

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  Briatore spent fifteen years on the sidelines of Formula One. He stayed close to the sport mainly through his friendship with Fernando Alonso. During that time he stuck to his belief that F1 should serve spectators rather than technical innovation. He attacked the sport's emphasis on hidden technology, saying that "nothing costs more, and delivers less entertainment". He criticised the big manufacturers' push for fuel-efficient engines, arguing that slower engines were no fun to watch and fans wanted the loud noise of the old ones. He also said independent teams could not reasonably reach the $175 million spending cap.

  In May 2024 he went back to Enstone and Renault, by then competing as the Alpine F1 Team. His title was Executive Advisor for the Formula One Division. The parent Renault company employed him, not the Alpine team itself. Motor Sport reported that he had effectively been given full scope over hiring and firing, and Car magazine called him team boss in all but name. On the 6th of May 2025, after team principal Oliver Oakes resigned mid-season, Briatore became Alpine's de facto team principal. He holds no official title because he is not an Alpine employee and lacks the required FIA licence.

  The comeback stirred controversy, largely because of memories of Crashgate. Still, Mercedes' Toto Wolff, Ferrari's Frédéric Vasseur and Sauber's Alessandro Alunni Bravi all spoke positively about it. Briatore credited Formula One chief Stefano Domenicali with making it happen.

  He cut costs hard. Headcount at the Enstone facility fell by 25%, and Renault's Viry-Châtillon engine operation closed in favour of a customer supply from Mercedes. Briatore first said ending the engine program was company leadership's idea, then later said it was his own.

  Several media outlets suggested Renault CEO Luca de Meo had given Briatore a mandate to make the team more attractive to a buyer. Briatore denied it. In 2026 Alpine's minority owners, the Otro Capital syndicate led by Alec Scheiner, discussed selling their 24-percent stake. Briatore said talks were ongoing but Renault would stay in control either way. Otro had bought in a season before his arrival for €200 million, valuing the team at $900 million. By March 2026 Otro valued it at £1.5-1.86 billion, or $1.99-2.46 billion.

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• 8. Beyond The Paddock

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  In 1998 Briatore created the Billionaire brand and owned a club in Sardinia. In August 2012 he opened another Billionaire club in Marbella, along with a couture line called Billionaire Italian Couture. He opened a Cipriani restaurant in Mayfair, London, in 2004. He also runs a Tuscan beach club and Lion in the Sun, a holiday resort in Kenya. He sold the Sardinia nightclub to Leonardo del Vecchio but kept the Billionaire name.

  Briatore benefits from Autumn Sailing Ltd, which once owned the luxury yacht Force Blue, bought from Roy Speer for £68.2m or $87m depending on the report. He called it the most extravagant present he had ever bought himself, though he rented it out by charter. In 2010 the Italian government seized the yacht over a tax dispute. In 2021 the government sold it to his friend Bernie Ecclestone for €7 million, which Briatore said was less than half its true value.

  On the 1st of September 2007 Queens Park Rangers announced that Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone had made a recommended offer for the club. They were buying from a Monaco-based consortium led by Gianni Paladini, and Lakshmi Mittal soon joined the owners. The price was £14m. Briatore served as chairman until 2010, and the club spent heavily and lost large sums, including £19m in 2009 and £14m in 2010. He later warned, "I will never invest in a football club again." He tried to steer football decisions. He ordered Paolo Sousa to play a second striker at half-time against Crystal Palace, and briefly tried to dictate lineups to Marc Bircham. He insisted that Paul Hart use a 4-4-2 formation instead of a 4-3-3.

  His FIA ban threatened his place at the club. The Football League requires owners to be fit and proper persons and can ban those banned by another sporting body. In October 2009 the League said it was investigating his exit from Renault. Briatore floated resigning in January 2010 and resigned that February. That December he sold his shares to Ecclestone. The season after he left, QPR won the Championship and reached the Premier League.

  Briatore hosted the Italian version of The Apprentice for both of its seasons, beginning in 2012. He has also appeared on Emigratis, on a 60 Minutes segment called Monaco, and on the Spanish talk show El Hormiguero.

  In 1993 an explosive device destroyed the front door of Briatore's London mansion, and the Provisional Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility. He now lives in Monaco, citing its tax rules and business environment. After Italy's government auctioned off Force Blue, he said that "Italy has never helped me... and it doesn't deserve to have me living there." In 2019 he founded the political party Movimento del Fare.

  Briatore has married three times. His wives were Nina Stevens, Marcy Schlobohm and Elisabetta Gregoraci, whom he married on the 14th of June 2008 and separated from in 2017. He was once engaged to the supermodel Naomi Campbell, and the two separated in 2003. A brief relationship with the supermodel Heidi Klum produced a daughter, Leni, born in 2004. He also has a son, Falco Nathan Briatore, born in 2010.

  While Leni was growing up, Heidi Klum and her then-husband Seal both said Briatore was not part of her life. Seal said it was not because Briatore was a bad person, and that he saw the set-up and left it alone. In 2009 Seal announced that Briatore had agreed to let him adopt five-year-old Leni and change her surname to Klum. Seal said Briatore "was a gentleman about the whole thing". In September 2023 it was reported that father and daughter were in contact. In October 2024 they opened a pizzeria together in Manhattan.

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