Briatore: Formula 1 is like managing a restaurant

Briatore was banned from F1 after ordering Nelson Piquet to crash in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to bring out a safety car and allow Fernando Alonso to win the race, an incident that was since dubbed the Singapore GP crashgate.

He spent his time away from F1 in the hospitality business, nightclubs, and restaurants but was never really away, and while his ban was removed in 2010, he returned in 2024 as executive advisor to Renault CEO Luca de Meo.

Since then, much has changed within the French team, who dumped their Renault power for 2026, opting to become Mercedes customers. Oliver Oakes was drafted as team principal, replacing Bruno Famin, while the team's long-serving sporting director, Alan Permane, also left.

The team also has a revised driver lineup with Esteban Ocon let go—he joined Haas—and was replaced by rookie Jack Doohan, with Franco Colapinto signed as a reserve—basically a plan B.

The Italian explained: "For me, Formula 1 is like managing a restaurant. It is the same. You're managing people. And we need to ensure that 1,000 people are working in the factory, and I have a responsibility for their salary.

"I prefer to do what is best for the team. If you have two drivers, the choice is between two drivers. If you have five [sic], the choice is between five [sic].

"Of the people in the factory when I arrived, I knew maybe 20% of them, but these people remember the winning with Fernando Alonso.

“I still see the quality of the team; I see that. The problem was the frustration in the way it was set up. You need to all be under the same roof.

“We did it with Benetton. We did it with Renault. If you see what we did at Benetton, Renault was the same movie; we just changed the actor.

"In Benetton, the actor was Michael Schumacher, and in Renault, the actor was Fernando Alonso. Now, we need to do another movie, but we don't know yet who the actor will be," he claimed.

Briatore recalled how his comeback happened: "This team, talking about Alpine. It’s the same team. It's a Benetton team, a Renault team, an Alpine. You change the [color of the] shirts; you change a little bit of the performance, but it is the same team.

“After 15 years out of Formula 1, I followed some races watching on TV. So, one day I called Luca [de Meo]. I told him I felt so sorry to see the team in this condition because it was my team. I created this team. I built in the factory, and there were world championships won in this building.

"I wanted to do something. And we started talking on the phone," he went on. "One day we met in Paris. I was busy with my restaurant business—I had 1,200 employees and then 600 because I sold 50% of the business, and I had a little more time.

"I just told Luca, let me see if it's possible. If I still have the same book I had before, to put together this team. And we started talking, but there was one condition: I wanted to be in charge completely."

Briatore explained the changes within the team as well as the approach; he continued: "You need to be fair and be transparent with your people.

"And this is the process we started. Bruno [Famin] did a super job to assure David Sanchez before he arrived at Alpine, but I needed a team principal because we need somebody on the ground.

"The best possibility for us was Olly. He's young. He's ambitious. He knows the business. He's a teammate. He's nice with the people. And he lives 20 minutes from the factory.

"When you're building a house, you need someone for the foundations. It made no sense to put on a f@cking roof, and after that, everything collapsed.

"That was the foundation, and after that, little by little, we built. We hired more people, and the team started having more credibility.

"It's a project. We found new sponsors, and we started looking for drivers. Ultimately, I came back because I believe I have the possibility to turn around the team," Briatore concluded.