Flavio Briatore, Alpine executive advisor, insists the French team can win in F1 again despite having slipped into midfield mediocrity over the past two decades. The colourful Italian was team principal at Enstone squad under its previous guises Benetton and Renault, winning four drivers' championships and three constructors' titles in two stints in the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, respectively. The situation at Alpine is a far cry from the halcyon days, but the 74-year-old maintains it is the "same team" underneath a different package. "This team, talking about Alpine," he told Motorsport.com. "It’s the same team. It’s a Benetton team, a Renault team, an Alpine. You change the [colour of the] shirts, you change a little bit of the performance, but it is the same team." Briatore was brought back into the fold last season, around the time of the Spanish Grand Prix, to help turn things around at the struggling outfit, which started the campaign comfortably at the back of the pack in F1. "I just told Luca [De Meo, Renault CEO], 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," the Italian explained.
Briatore: 'It made no sense to put on a fucking roof'
Then-team principal Bruno Famin made way just before the summer shutdown, shuffled out to a different role, with Oliver Oakes appointed at the helm of the team, albeit in tandem with Briatore. "You need to be fair and be transparent with your people," Briatore said. "And this is the process we started. Bruno 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 Oli. He’s young. He’s ambitious. He knows the business. He’s a team-mate. 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 fucking 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."
Turning things around at Alpine
Briatore - who was previously banned from F1 for his involvement in the infamous Crashgate saga, but later managed to get it overturned - believes Alpine can make a comeback and return to winning ways. Whilst the campaign ahead is a springboard, he argues the team needs to start taking grand prix victories in 2026. That is the first season of the comprehensive power unit and chassis overhaul, when Alpine will forgo its works status to take on Mercedes engines. Further still, the Italian is targeting being in championship contention by the second year of the next regulations cycle. "Two or three weeks!" Briatore joked in response to being asked how long to turn the team around. "This season is important because we need to prepare ourselves for 2026 when we need to start winning races. "In ’26 we have the Mercedes engine and, in the meantime, we need to fit in more people with experience in our team. "It is the same as at Benetton, people said it was a joke because we were a t-shirt maker but after we started winning some races, everybody wanted to come to the team, people started paying attention. In the same way as Renault. "If everybody is working together, I believe in 2026 it is possible to be winning races and in 2027 fighting for the championship."
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