Renault has now brought Flavio Briatore back to Formula 1 in a bid to turn Alpine into a more successful team with one of his first tasks being to contact a key Red Bull man.
Briatore enjoyed a successful tenure in charge of the Enstone squad when they operated as Renault in yesteryear. But his legacy in F1 is forever tainted from Crashgate due to his role in Nelson Piquet Jr intentionally crashing to help Fernando Alonso win the 2008 Singapore GP.
The FIA sought to have Briatore banned from motorsport indefinitely and it slapped Renault with a two-year suspended sentence. It deemed Briatore alongside engineering director Pat Symonds and Piquet Jr colluded alone. But the French courts would overturn Briatore’s ban.
Flavio Briatore has contacted Adrian Newey about joining Alpine
Now, Briatore is back in Enstone as Groupe Renault CEO Luca de Meo strives to make Alpine a regularly competitive F1 team. That is according to Corriere della Sera, which reports that De Meo has hired Briatore as a special supervisor to oversee a recruitment drive in Enstone.
Briatore led the Enstone outfit to the constructors’ and drivers’ titles in 2005 and 2006 with Alonso as Renault. But De Meo has now tasked his fellow Italian with striving to help Alpine achieve more than a fortuitous victory at the 2021 Hungarian GP with Esteban Ocon driving.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Alpine believe they are substantially lacking in their design department, despite hiring David Sanchez following his departure from McLaren. Briatore is in contact with multiple potential additions and phoned Adrian Newey after Red Bull confirmed his departure from their team.
Newey has stepped aside from Red Bull’s Formula 1 project ahead of leaving Milton Keynes in early 2025. But Briatore is struggling to convince Newey that he should join Alpine for his next challenge. The scorned F1 boss is failing to shape Alpine’s new organisational structure.
Alpine face a big fight to sign departing Red Bull chief Adrian Newey
Briatore is working to convince Newey to join Alpine’s new leadership group with F1’s 2026 engine and chassis regulation changes in mind. But the Red Bull design guru is one of if not the most in-demand names in Formula 1 now after confirming his exit before the Miami GP.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, Williams team principal James Vowles is also ‘working tirelessly’ to convince Newey to join. AMuS also reports that Mercedes are making cautious approaches to Newey as the Silver Arrows look to overcome solid competition from Ferrari.
Additionally, Corriere della Sera has even reported that Aston Martin have offered Newey a €25m-a-year (£409k-a-week) contract. He is highly sought after having designed 12 teams’ and 13 drivers’ title-winning cars, to see Lewis Hamilton hail Newey for an ‘amazing’ career.
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