Briatore: De Meo didn’t listen, then he called when Alpine was in sh!t

We have repeatedly argued that De Meo is guilty of dismantling France's finest and perhaps final F1 effort, eroding a legacy that once placed Renault at the forefront of the sport, including endurance racing and the pinnacle of Formula 1. Including 169 Grand Prix victories.

In hindsight, one could argue that the ill-advised rebranding to Alpine was the first mistake. What followed were ill-timed management dismissals, some of which left gaps that couldn't be filled for years, leading to a couple of years of uncertainty and a spiralling F1 effort that eventually resulted in drastic measures.

Briatore is the embodiment of 'drastic measures,' as we all know. In a recent episode of the Formula For Success podcast with Eddie Jordan, the Italian revealed how his return as Special Advisor to the Alpine F1 Team came about: "I’ve known Luca [de Meo] long before he arrived at Renault. When he arrived, I gave him some suggestions and told him Formula 1 is a very difficult business. The people he had there were not so good."

“So after three years, he called me, we met," Briatore recalled. "He said they are completely in the sh!t with the team. And I told Luca that Formula 1 is a different business. In Formula 1, you need someone dedicated to the team. It can't be run like a corporation or a bureaucracy; the team needs spirit."

"One day, we were talking, and he asked: 'Why don’t you come back to help me?' And that’s how the conversation started. I know the team, I know the factory, I know everything. So I said: 'Why not?' But I needed to organize myself differently because I didn’t want to go to every race. I didn’t want to live in England, maybe just one day a week."

Under Briatore's watch, Fernando Alonso won the 2005 and 2006 Formula 1 World Championship Drivers' titles, the only two in Renault's trophy cabinet, along with the two Constructors' trophies from the same years, with Giancarlo Fisichella in the second car.

Although Briatore will forever be linked to the notorious F1 Crashgate scandal, he is now tasked with picking up the pieces of a once-grand team that De Meo dismantled. This is a case of going full circle: "It was my old team. With this team, we won seven championships. It’s a new challenge, a new motivation. I’m very happy to come back."

Briatore wasted no time in appointing Hitech GP boss Oli Oakes as team principal. Flav elaborated on the leadership of the team: "It’s Luca, myself, and Oliver as the team principal, and we are working like that.”

On the drivers' front, Pierre Gasly is signed beyond 2024, but a question mark hangs over the second seat. With a new set of bosses, there will be new agendas, and drivers will be high on that list. As a result, no decision has been made yet about Jack Doohan, despite the strong lobbying by English-language media to have him fill the seat vacated by the Haas-bound Esteban Ocon.

However, Briatore insisted that drivers are not his top priority at the moment: “I don’t know yet. Right now, we need to put the team together on the commercial side, the technical side, the management side. The driver makes no difference now. The driver will make a difference in 2026, 2027, and 2028. For me, the focus is on the car’s performance. It’s about restructuring the team completely.

“If you have a good car, you need a good driver. But if the car is not performing… Our priority right now is to make sure we put all our energy into the technical side and ensure that the Alpine car is improving steadily for next year.

"In 2026, I believe we will see the new Alpine. I promise you, give me two years, and in two years, we will see the podium," predicted Briatore, adding emphatically: "In 2027, we will have a podium.”