Flavio Briatore dismisses 'monster high-profile' involvement in Alpine F1 rebuild

Flavio Briatore insists Alpine will not take "monster high-profile" technical figures as the team continues its rebuild in F1. 

Briatore returned to F1 as executive advisor to then-Renault boss Luca de Meo in 2024 after a period of upheaval for the team, including the departures of CEO Laurent Rossi, team principals Otmar Szafnauer and Bruno Famin, sporting director Alan Permane, and technical director Matt Harman, amongst others, across 2023 and Briatore's arrival. 

After the resignation of Oliver Oakes for personal reasons in 2025, Briatore became de facto team principal, with his former Benetton lieutenant Steve Nielsen now the managing director of day-to-day operations at Enstone.

He has been joined by the likes of former Ferrari and McLaren chief David Sanchez (executive technical director) and former FIA figure Jason Sommerville as Sanchez's deputy, with Kimi Raikkonen's former Ferrari race engineer Dave Greenwood serving as racing director. 

For 2026, the team took the decision to change from using works Renault engines to a customer Mercedes supply, which has yielded a strong upturn in results, with the team sitting sixth in the constructors' standings in the summer break, five points behind Racing Bulls in fifth. 

Team leader Pierre Gasly scored Alpine's first podium in a dry race since 2023 in Monaco with third place, whilst Franco Colapinto has also contributed, with six top-10 results, including a career-best sixth in Canada.

As the new-look leadership group continues to gel, Briatore is adamant that his team will not sign a "monster high-profile" technical lead - instead pointing to Enstone's history of creating such figures.

"For us, it's a question of consolidating the technical side because now we have the engine, and now we need to improve our technology quality in the team," Briatore told select, invited media, including RacingNews365.

"When I arrived at Alpine, the situation was quite bad; we were losing a lot of people, and there were too many changes, with management changing every year, this and that, but no consistency at all. 

"Little by little, you need to build again the strong technical side and strong consistency again and again to improve. We need big improvements in the technical side, but we also need to improve everything; it is not only one area you need to improve. You need to improve everything if you want to win. 

"We are not there yet. We need to work, especially to reorganise the platform we have, and that takes time. We need somebody with experience. We are hunting, but it's not easy.

"More than someone high-profile, we need a good one, because a lot of profile is no good at all. Formula 1 creates the monster, and after some time, the monster is working or not. Everybody knows Aston Martin has the best technical profile in the world. 

"Lawrence Stroll has done an incredible job in building the factory and this and that, but the results are not the same, so we will never take a monster high-profile [technical figure] in my team. 

"We created monster high-profiles in Ross Brawn, in Bob Bell, in Pat Symonds, and in James Allison.

"We found a way; we were working with young people, working with the structure. What we're looking for is not high-profile; it is a group of people working together and delivering the results.

"You need a little bit of time; a little bit of time is not 10 years, it is two or three years. It is the same as when I arrived at Benetton for the first time, and the same as what we did with Renault. 

"When I arrived, there were 1,300 people in the team, and now we are 900 because I had 400 people who had nothing to do with us. So when you talk about the business structure of the company, you have a process. 

"It is very painful in the beginning, but now we see where we're going."