Formula One Growth and Future Outlook

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With Mercedes engines powering them, Gucci arriving as the team's main sponsor in twenty twenty seven and a strong driver lineup, the pieces are falling into place for Alpine to fight at the front. Franco is integrating much better in the team, he's improving a lot . I believe Pierre is one of the top six drivers . Hello and welcome to F one Beyond the Grid with me, Tom Clarkson and Alpine's executive advisor, Flavio Briatori. Flavio has a huge history of success with Team Endstone in his various games . He led Beneton to World Championships with Michael Schumacher in the nineties , before then repeating that feat with Renault and Fernando Alonso in the two thousands. So how does he achieve the same with Alpine now? I asked Flavio if he's trying to create Benaton two point zero, whether he has a timescale for the team to fight for titles, and what he makes of his drivers, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colopinto. In typical Flavio fashion, he tells some funny stories about replacing Jensen Button with Alonso at Renault, firing Jackie Stewart , and his rather direct criticism of Franco in the latest series of Drive to Surv . And Flavio also talks about the deal that will see them become Gucci racing alpine formula one team from next season Flauio, it's great to have you on the show again. Good morning. How are you? Super well. I wanted to ask you first of all how busy you are because there's a lot happening in Formula One with Alpine , but do you still have all of your other businesses going on in the background? Make Formula One easy . How do you juggle everything ? First, I sold a big part of the business, the food and beverage last year. So now I pretty much organize. I have a young manager and normally I spend one hour a day for food and beverage if you want . And the rest is formal one. Formula one keeps ninety percent of my time. Learton, how much are you enjoying your racing this year? Because you've already doubled the tally of points from twenty twenty five, the team feels like it's really buzzing at the moment . No forget we done the agreement with we must say this changed a lot of our performance in the track and give more motivation to everybody . And I enjoy enjoying the way I arrived last year in Formula One with Halping at P because it was not cadillac yet. It's no weird PLEV . But from P ten we done a good jump but we just had the beginning . How different is Team N Stone today to when you last run it twenty years ago . The building is the same . Maybe we have the simulator this different with few new machinery and this and that the team is the same. qu Theality of the people is good. And we have a lot of young people in the team in Henston . I don't see any difference. You know, the entrance is the same, my office is the same, and everything is the same. I know she 's very competitive. You know, it's Formula One. The DNA of Formula One never changed. And the DNA of the team hasn't changed because I remember you twenty years ago as a team that was full of just out and out races with some big characters like Jonathan Wheatley, Allen Permane both are team principal and very happy, you know, because I have a fantastic career in Formula One, both guys . But in Formula One, we are very good to creating a monster . And now is the time to build up again a team to build up again the motivation and make sure the people doing the right job in the team and make sure the people is motivated, make sure everything is transparent and really demanding time, you know, to managing a team like Alping . But I love it. You know, back in my job, if you want, I done quite well in Benetton . And now I try to help Alpine to be competitive and we need doing everything is possible to motivate everybody to doing the best job is possible. And the result is always Sunday, you know, we have a company our balance sheet .orm Nal companies presented a balance sheet every six months. Our balance sheet is every week, but you need put everything together. You need a little bit of time . How difficult is it build a winning team these days by the time you've factored in gardening leave and budgets and is it harder to build that team today than it was twenty years ago? Yeah, because the price of the people exchange as well. Everybody is looking the same river . We need to try people outside of Formula One as well to enjoy the team . You know, Formula One is very difficult in one way. It's very simple and the one. But we complicated form one a lot . You know, if we have an hour of the meeting mom for nothing , we need concentrated into the performance of the of the product you have. I believe whatever product you have, the system is the same. You managing people . For this, we need we need looking as well outside of the circuit of formula one to have the right people, to have the right job, etc , etc . As well as a lot of the new blood or new people enthusiastic to working for a racing team. Maybe it's not in the racing team yet. We need fishing, all these kind of people as well. But where are you doing your fishing, as you say what industries are you looking at university, aerodynamic and etc , et cetera, you know, in automotive . We believe there's a lot of talent around the world, especially now, you know, especially now is a lot of young talent . We need them the capacity to individual the right people for doing the right job. And this is the effort I do myself, I do with my people, I do with engineering. And like the racing team, the racing team, this year is much, much better and not lesser. But would you agree that Formula One is a unique ecosystem where some people find it hard to survive, right? Coming in from other industries, some people find the way things are done here, just the intensity of it. It's seven days a week, twenty four hours a day. Not everyone wants that. If you see in the food and beverage business the same, you work in summer, you work in Christmas, you work in New Year's, you know , it's the same. You tell me Forma Wang is very demanding. I tell you about the restaurant it's very demanding. I talk about restaurant important restaurant . You know, you know, the day off, basically you have the day off summer you're working, winter you're working and Christmas you're working. New Year's is the best night . So we don't need creating formal wines, the more difficult tough is and that and that is that other one business is much tougher in a former one. You make less money in a former one ? Are you putting a timescale on when you want to be challenging for the world championship? Because other teams are doing that. Williams have come out recently saying twenty thirty they want to be challenging for the title. Audi have given the same timeline. And of course, the people currently challenging for the World Championship want to still be there as well. Not everyone can win. What's your timescale for Audi? I don't have it. What did you make of Lauren Rossi when he was in charge of Alpine? He said, We need to be successful in one hundred races . I don't know him at all. I never talked with him. I don't know what he's talking about. Whatever he was talking was wrong. Okay, so there's no timeline. Can we talk drivers? Last year you resign Pierre on a long term deal? Why was that important for you? I believe Pierre is one of the top six drivers . First we need fixing the car and then we need a performance of the car. And after that , I don't think so the issue for me in this moment is the driver . The issue for me I have, a much better performance in the car. The moment you have the performance of the car , you're looking for driver. But happy Pierre . Pierf is very underestimating the driver if you want. And for me , if you want to put the leading group, don't ask me the name because I never tell you, but the leading group, FPR is one in the top six . And Franco , we don't know. If you see Rasier Antonio, nobody believed it last year, the performance of Antonelle in twenty twenty six. And Franco is integrating much better in the team , he's improving a lot, mentally , technically , relationship with the team. You know, let's see. They say we done it with Torrendo. When I say Fernando, you remember Fernando, I sent one year Fernando in Minardi to understand and after I choose Fernando to replace Jen Son Battle , your guys who go crazy all the British press go crazy fired fired fired the board champion to take the Spanish guy blah blah blah . I always said only the future tell me was right or not. I was right . You were right, you were right, but I think we did recognize the talent. No, after. We recognize after we started winning race absolutely. And I remember the press conference I done it in the motor room with your guys and I were because you managing the guy because of this and that because it did that you fire you fired the world shampion bl,ah blah blah . Anyway, story the same. First, let's see to improve in our technical department. And after that look in for what kind of possibility we have in just twenty twenty eight we have an agreement with Pierre. He's doing super job. Has he stepped up into the sort of team leader role as you would have hoped? Yes , yes, one hundred percent. He's a natural leader. Little by little, you start knowing better and honestly, he's a leader. He's a leader. He's very well integrated with the team and is working very hard in the simulator maybe too many too much . Again, the simulator now is we have a double race. We have the race in the truck. We have the racing simulator . Perry is very nice guy, very nice family and the team is very transparent with him and the team is very transparent with us. You know, only this way you're working together. A lot of time in the team try to keep secrets to keep this in that way with me no secret anymore. With every body , you be transparent, everybody, you know what he's doing, etc , etc . Only like this you improve in the team. This episode is sponsored by Kargaroos . There are a few big purchases in life where you know you really need to do your research so you don't get stung further down the line and buying a car is one of them. I know whenever I've looked in the past the sheer number of options can get a bit overwhelming . Almost every listing can look brilliant in the photos, but the tricky part is figuring out what's actually a good buy once you start digging into the details. 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That's kargurus c u is dot co dot UK kargurus. co. uk urus search , buy sorted . People across the country are feeling all warm and fuzzy about their heat pumps. Installing it during the renovation was an easy call. The bathroom tiles, however, it's much nicer than your boiler. The place is just always warm and cozy like the government grant was the help we needed to start upgrading. You get a lovely steady temperature walking around with up when slippers are you? Feel all warm and fuzzy inside with a seven point five thousand pound government grant towards your heat pump at gov slash clean energy. Eligibility Criteria applies your website for details. Accordo price match your shop to over ten thousand products from Tesco dot com so you can get everything you need for less than you think. Should free up some budget for that emergency tub of ice cream. Ecado, the online supermarket. Maxim how for a different like for like shop value twenty eight days excludes marketplace products may vary geographical restrictions, mint spend and charges apply. Terms at a code. com slash price promise Can I ask you more about Franco ? Because we have seen an extraordinary turnaround by him this year . Why do you think that is? We work him very hard with him. He's moving to Monaco. I see him a lot in Monaco. We talked a lot with him. You know, this young driver arriving for Mawan with a lot of pressure. And to settle mentally is not easy. And we need that thing . We done we've done a lot of work with Franco and now little by little the confidence arrived. Ima have a talent. Okay, just forget, Ima have a talent. I don't know how level of talent we arrive with him. Passure him at talent . This is under . Like antonillo Rasier have a talent . Disser Show up the talent. And Franco is not show up the talent completely because still in this way. But honestly, if you tell me, I don't know. Let's see. Flavio can, I remind you of a quote from Drive to Survive? Yeah, I don't know. This series You are the problem you have to understand is what you said to Franco. Was that a bit much? Do you regret being that hard on him? No . You know it's always this feeling about the drive is intouchable and the mechanic is working day at night last night at this or our mechanic is finished at one o'clock in the m orning. When you talk about the driver, you need very careful tool with the drive, very careful this . No, it's not like that. The driver is the managing the red or the company. The driver is bringing the result to the team . And you need to tell the truth what I believe at and it touched the driver. I don't go in the back to talking with the press to what you know what? No, no, no, no, I go in front of him. The problem is you, simply not. Now , the problem is not a problem anymore because Frank is performing well. At the time, it was a problem terminated between you and MPR, you have a thousand people working for you guys . You need respect these thousand people working for you guys. Sure with different salaries, you need to demonstrate to me you doing everything is possible to perform . It's a confidence game, this isn't it? Is that percent? Is that the main difference we've seen in Franco? The confidence is there . And you know, before you have you had the briefing, it was looking always what people are doing, you know? I thought it's wrong . You need driving the car in your way. You don't need driving the car thinking about the telemetry and that. You have a talent. And Tell Franco, you need driving the car like you enjoy driedving the car. This is the job you like. Enjoy the job. Yeah. Talking about enjoying the job . When he did the show car run in Buenos Aires and what was it? six hundred thousand people came out to watch him. That was just before Miami when we saw that. The turnaround, I mean our turnaround was in the beginning already. It was already you saw it already before it was in the beginning . Actually there was a he did a defensive masterclass in China, didn't me? Yeah. I never believe it. I believe in ten thousand twenty half million people to see nothing because everybody was behind to everybody . You have half million people see nothing . And the strange is , Franco never won nothing . I still don't understand these half million people or more of six hundred standing there for Tranco. I don't understand. You've always seen the bigger picture in Formula One. Would you like to see a race in Argentina back in Argentina? If I still have Franco, yes . If I have Franco in OK. Well, Flavio, give us an exclusive . Is your intention to retain Franco for twenty twenty seven if Franco is performing like he's performing now and the relationship between Franco and Pierre is like now, you know, it's the same with Alonso the time with physical , with truly super relationship . Why not ? I prefer I know Frank very well now, Binobiard very well . We are in the moment to build up the technical to build up the team. Consistency? Maybe we have plenty of race to go just to the end of August and before the summer break we dec ide . In the past , your main successes have come based around one big driver, whether it was Michael Schumacher at Beneton, obviously, then Fernando at Renault. Do you think , you know the, icing on the cake for Alpine to be challenging for world championships? Do you need a Max Verstappen in the team? Or can you do it a slightly different way this time? First thing is the wallet. I don't have this kind of money, you know ? I agree. I agree Max Max is a super driver is the loan so the shoe marker in this moment is number one driver. I believe as well if you are a competitive car , you see Max the moment there Bull was a supercar, like we have a Mercedes not Mercedes supercar . It delivered incredible , incredible results. And if you tell me six months ago between Antonio and Max, you take, you know, everybody take Max . Now I think so Toto have a drama because he never split on so quick. I love the drama like Toto it reminds me of McLaren two thousand seven along with Bernando, Fernando, because Ronden is underestimated Hamilton completely. You remember Rondenin was taking one of my drivers Kobalinen . And Ronden said she Kobainen was a superstar. I give to him because I believe he was not a superstar. After that we arrived into the two guys, Fernando and Hemito. After one race, Rondenis and understand a quick was now in the same situation up in total. Yeah. Different topic. Can we talk Gucci? Yes, so I love it. Are you going to be the best looking team in the Paddock next year? Is that the plan? We work in six months, seven months and for five months, nobody know we negotiated with Gucci because we have only a few people involved in the negotiation . After the moment you involve more people and everybody talking, etc . And Gucci is still one of the three best brands in the world. I need something in my team to upgrading the name of the team . A grating more important for me was Gucci, alping, I'll ping you up because Gucci is up already . We have the first luxury brand in the car in Formova. We are Louvitong is part of the sponsor of the event . Gooch is in the arena . And for this was so big interest , if you want in the Gucci deal, it was one point two billion visualization. You see all the media, you know, that's crazy . And more important, the people for Gucci is very enthusiastic to be informed one . So you reckon if you remotivate everybody Gucci, Gucci needs very motivating. So I believe it's a super need with both with the team, with Gucci Brand with the finance as well . We have from Gucci. Yeah, I saw they photograph their summer collection in Monac o. So they're already super we doing the merchandising. We do one line of merchandising every shop Gucci . You see, if we have the place I have in Monaco in the beach La Rose devon now is blended in Bagucci . You have everyday girls arriving with Gucci dress with Instagram to make sure this is the restaurant. We are already a sir full byook becauseed this place is fully booked from the moment they take over. But now we are over fully booked. And what is amazing is all the women's arriving with good dress. It's unbelievable. I never I believe was a successful deal . If I say to you this feels like Bennetton two point zero , is that an accurate comparison of what you're trying to do here? one hundred percent. You are trying to do it. Bennettova, you know, we are a t shirt maker. You remember Rondenis ? Rondenis, on daytime, you never make it because you're so good to make a t shirt. And this is a different business This is what you asked me first. It's no different business. It's managing people . And we done it with Beneton with zero minus twelve experience . You know, I never see a race in my life . I never see a formal race once. Only one guy I know for Forma one was Jackie Stewart because he was living my building in New York and Jackie at the time was that the face of the Ford . You see him in television all the time in the spot. Did you chat to Jackie back in the day . You remember, I put the controller with Jackie. I had the control with Jackie . And after two days, Jackie said , you know, you're in the shit, you know , Jackie. I know myself, I am in the shit. I fire him . And you fired Jackie Jackie, fired Jackie Sears . And we see a very good friend, you know, Matty. At the time, I know I am in the trouble. If I take somebody to arm me, tell me you're in the trouble. I don't need any help. I know myself I am in the trouble . And our collaboration was finished if you need to. Look, final topic, Flabio is just where Formula One is at because I think Gucci coming in says great things about Alpine, but it also says great things about the sport of Formula One . How much more do you think Formula One can grow? Do you think there's still a lot of room? Formula One? The moment Liberty takes over and the moment is in charge is growing massively in very quick time. If you see all the sponsor Formula One where it's the best poss inible the world between what we have in the car, what we have in the two sponsored event, etc , etc . We have a Gucci now in the car and we have a Luvitong as well. The two looks really blank in the world. Stefano realized as well to have a coocci in Former One is a big brand. To have bought brand ideas in the basket of Former One, I believe it's fantastic . But former One now the level of former one is very high . You was very young at the time at Beneton , we tried to raise in America and we had the agreement including Rond is because always the difficult guy to pay for for raising America . Nobody wants us . And now we go to Austin and we have five hundred thousand people for the weekend. What the people done , you know, in front of the stay for him for a long time, but he done a super job. Super super job. You've always been very close to the movers and shakers at the very top of Formula One. You're very close to Bernie Ecklestone. You're very close to Stefano now. How different is Stefano's way of running the sport to Bernie ? Motor successful . Stephano is much more open and it's much more modern , if you want. It's too different way. And Bernie was a one way boss . Stephen was thinking about and time he's working much close with the team , it's working close with the sponsor, is more disposal to the team principal wherever , but in different times have a very good success. But the former one is never be successful right now. This is a reality. Flavio, it has been a real pleasure to catch up again. Thank you very much for your time. Final question, who's going to win the World Cup ? Football