Flavio Briatore is back in Formula 1.
The former Benetton and Renault executive has been hired as an executive advisor for Alpine, the current Renault official team. Briatore, 74, was banned for life from Formula 1 before that suspension was overturned on appeal in 2013.
Briatore was banned from Formula 1 due to the Renault intentional crash scandal in 2008. He told Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash on purpose during the Singapore Grand Prix so teammate Fernando Alonso could win. The incident quickly became known as “Crashgate.”
Piquet crashed early in the race, just before the pit window opened for the teams. Alonso had pitted earlier in the race and took the lead as race leaders at the time of Piquet’s accident on pit road. Alonso, who had started 15th, won the race.
A year later, after he was removed from his seat, Piquet said he was told to crash the car on purpose. The FIA immediately investigated Piquet’s claims and accused Renault of fixing the race in September 2009. Renault eventually received a two-year suspended disqualification from the series pending further rule violations (the team was not actually expelled from F1) and Briatore, the then CEO of Renault was banned for life.
Briatore was previously convicted in an Italian court of multiple counts of fraud in the 1980s. He took over as CEO of Benetton in the late 1980s and continued to work for the team after Renault bought it in 2000.
Alpine is in the midst of a miserable start to the 2024 Formula 1 season. The team sits eighth out of 10 in the constructors’ standings, as Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon have collected just five combined points so far this season. . Gasly and Ocon have been plagued by a lack of speed and mechanical problems, and they have not gotten along well on track either. Ocon will leave the team at the end of the season and is considered a candidate to drive for Haas alongside Ollie Bearman in 2025.
