Q & A with Flavio Briatore

Flavio Briatore: No! (Smiling) I like fighting between drivers in the team! (Laugh)

Q. No seriously, have you laid down any rules?

FB: You know, I never have any problems for the moment. I don't think it is the major problem in the team. We know Fernando very well, we are very happy to have him back. He is a great motivation for everyone, including myself. And I want him to enjoy racing. I want him to smile, enjoy himself and drive with the programme. And it is the same for Nelson Piquet.

There is no competition between team members. The drivers work together for what is best for the team. We don't need to forget that Fernando has the most experience, he is twice a world champion with us. And Piquet have a lot to learn, and is very smart, very intelligent. He is the future for us as well, he is 22 and very young - and in a fantastic position to learn from Fernando. Plus if he is quick, he can win races.

There is absolutely no problem. It is just important that we have two drivers having fun, smiling, having a good time and being happy to race.

Q. Have you noticed any changes in Fernando in the year he was away?

FB: I think Fernando is more mature. It is normal. He has one year more experience. Last year he was in a very competitive team as well. One more year's experience for Fernando is a big plus. He is very focused, very motivated and I see a change in his maturity, focus and being more responsible. I am pleased to see Fernando change in a better way.

Q. Did he tell you much about last year?

FB: No. You know what, I think we need to look ahead and talk about Formula One as a sport. Everybody have pain sometimes and trouble, but we want to look to the future. Talk about the sport, talking about having a better race. We are talking a lot about budget caps, but the spectators are not really interested in how much we spend. I think the spectators will judge us more on the show we deliver. This is what we need to improve.

Q. Do you think Fernando was shown a lack of respect last year?

FB: I judge Fernando when he is working with us. I don't want to go into detail about what happened in McLaren, because it is not my business. Everyone has a different way of managing people, everyone has a different approach. This is part of life. I don't want to judge what happened between Fernando and McLaren. I want to judge what happened between Fernando and us in the last four or five years we worked together. We always had a fantastic relationship.

Q. Do you think he wished he never left?

FB: I don't know. If he comes back, maybe that is the reason.

Q. Are you worried he might leave again?

FB: I am not worried. I never worry in my life. I make somebody else to worry. I would be a masochist if I started the season knowing somebody wanted to leave.

The driver is very important for us and the company, that is for sure. But we need to respect them as well. You are talking about young kids, and we need to make sure that fun is part of the job. These people love racing.

Q. Do you think he realises he can be happier here?

FB: Fernando knows exactly what happened to Renault in the last five years with us. He left to go to McLaren, and I think it was another year of experience. Then he came back to us. It is as simple as that. It is part of life to change to something different. I was at Benetton and I left Benetton and came back to Renault.

Q. Did you not look at Fernando last season and think that that was not really him?

FB: From a performing point of view he did a very good job last year. The team was good, and it was not possible to tell if Fernando was happy. But this is a different department. This is not really my problem as he was in a different team. I don't want to judge what he did with McLaren, because it is not in my responsibility.

Q. One of Fernando's issues last year was that he wasn't given number one status at McLaren. What will the situation be here this year?

FB: This is really my problem with the two drivers. I don't want to talk about number one, two, three, four, five, six or seven. It is quite easy. Both drivers are working for the team, we are working together and we will see. But we start with one point that is very important - Fernando is a world champion. We have the world champion back, he won two titles with us, and Nelsinho is the young guy and he will learn.

Don't forget that Nelsinho last year did not race, although he had a lot of tests. The relationship between the two is very clear, it is very nice and we support both drivers in an equal way. After that, the reason we take Fernando is because we want him back and we want to push a lot for him.

Q. How difficult was it to get him back?

FB: Whether it was difficult or not, we had one big advantage because I know him very well. After the experience he had at McLaren, I think he needs something to feel good, to feel settled. Plus, we talk every weekend. There was a lot of competition, it is normal, but in the end Fernando choose what you know.

Q. When did you talk to him seriously about coming back?

FB: Before the first race!

Q. Can you tell us something about the new car?

FB: The R27 had plenty of weak points. It was not difficult to identify the weak points in the R27. It was slow. And I am not a technical man, but we are working very hard in this car. There is a lot of change in respect of 2007, but only the first race will tell us if we have done a good job.

Everyone is working hard and for me the most important thing is seeing what is going on in the first race. All the other presentations, people say their car is fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. This car, I don't know. We have done a lot of mileage in the first test at Valencia and we know there is nothing wrong. Now we need to start working on performance, which we will do from tomorrow in Barcelona.

Q. If the car is competitive, can Nelson make the same impact in his rookie year as Lewis Hamilton did?

FB: If the car is competitive then I hope to have two drivers on top all the time. Nelson did quite well in GP2 against Hamilton. Hamilton at one point was driving better car, because the team was better, but in the beginning of the season Nelson was very, very competitive.

Q. Will one of the benefits this year be that Fernando is motivated by the events of last year to beat McLaren?

FB: When you are building a car, and you ask the engineers to build the car, and then the driver gives you 80 percent of the potential of the car, or some drivers 90 percent, with Fernando you know you have 100 percent of the car. You know the limit of the car, which is very important.

It is not only the limit of the car, it is also the direction you want in the car. Fernando has a great understanding about the car. It is very important. Nelsinho in one year did 30,000km in testing. The combination of the two is fantastic and what Fernando brings to the team is really the motivation. The engineers know if the car is right in delivery, and this is fundamental.

Q. With Fernando in the car last year, what do you think would have been possible?

FB: The car was pretty much undriveable, especially in the beginning. And we know that. We know it was difficult to drive and I really don't think it was the fault of Fisichella or Heikki. It was a difficult car, but I don't know what the input of Fernando would have been. But what we have seen is that when Fernando did the test in the 2007 car, he was immediately was quick.

Q. You said last year that a team would have to promise a double world champion number one status - is that an assurance that you had to give Fernando?

FB: You guys talk about number one, number two like somebody has written it on their shirts...

Q. So Fernando didn't seek any guarantees on that front after his problems at McLaren?

FB: I don't think so. I don't want to go back and talk about McLaren, honestly.

Q. But to avoid it happening again...

FB: In Formula One it's so easy to have a problem. What you need to do is anticipate the problem a little bit before it arises because after it's too late.

But really we don't discuss about that, because Fernando knows the way we work as a team, and Nelsinho knows as well. I think it's very clear...

Q. It doesn't need to be written down in the contract then?

FB: It is a written contract, yes.

Q. Have you noticed any differences in Fernando since he was last here in 2006?

FB: He's more mature. One year in Formula One is a lot, and especially one more year with McLaren in a very competitive team. One year with McLaren is like three or four years [elsewhere]. He seems more mature, more easy.

Q. Has it become easier to communicate with him?

FB: Fernando is very professional - he's not some lunatic! He's a very good team player if he has the environment to give him support.

Q. Can you believe that Ron Dennis has let a double world champion leave?

FB: Listen, I don't want to judge Ron because he's done a very good job in the past. We are in competition but I have a lot of respect for Ron. McLaren is a very important team for Formula One.

Q. Do you think that after a year here Heikki can give Lewis Hamilton a run for his money?

FB: I hope so! We hope there's another one [who can].

Q. How do you rate him?

FB: Heikki is very good; he's very stable. It will be interesting to see Heikki with Lewis. Sure, Lewis has the advantage at the moment because he knows the car very well, knows the system and knows the team.

But I'm sure the team will support Heikki as well because in the end you need two [competitive] cars, and I believe he'll do a good job there.

Q. Why did you choose Nelson over Heikki - what was the call that you made there?

FB: Well, Nelson is a young driver, and when you have one guy like Fernando, you need to decide to have somebody else in line to learn from somebody like Fernando.

Heikki was already in Formula One, was already determined...I think for Heikki this year in another team is very good.

I believe if you have Fernando it makes much more sense to have a rookie like Piquet with him. We like Heikki very much, but it was a decision made like that, for the future.

Q. Did you feel Heikki would give Fernando too much of a run for his money and this could cause conflict?

FB: No. Because of what happened last year at McLaren you guys believe that conflict between two drivers is happening all the time, and I don't think it's like that.

Last year was. First of all, nobody expected Hamilton to be so quick - period. And everything started from there, because no one thought he would be as quick as Fernando.

Q. What targets do you hope Renault will achieve this year?

FB: I want every time we start a race to have at least a 50% possibility to achieve a podium. Don't forget that we had Ferrari, McLaren and BMW all in front of us.

The podium is only three drivers, and you need to be in the top two or three teams to get there. So that would be fantastic for us; after that you never know.

Q. Your company manages both Heikki and Fernando - how easy was it to make the driver swap, were there any problems?

FB: No problems. The fact that McLaren have one of our drivers means continuity! Consistency is everything.

Q. Do you think the fact that you stopped developing last year's car and concentrated on the R28 early will give you an advantage over some other teams?

FB: I hope so. We try everything, so let's see.

Q. Can you compare Nelsinho with his father, who raced for you in the Benetton days?

FB: Both are Brazilian!

Q. A few years ago you said you might consider leaving Renault at some point; how do you see your future in the team today?

FB: The team have not fired me yet! Honestly, I enjoy the team. We've done amazing things. I still have fun, and for me it's important to have fun. This year I should have fun again.

I like you guys, I like the environment...in the end Formula One is a fantastic job. Sure, we have a lot of controversies but we are all very privileged - myself, you guys, everybody - to work in this incredible environment.

We don't pretend to be friends with everybody but in my opinion we are very lucky and we need to respect that.

At the moment I feel that I am managing the team well, and as long as I feel I am delivering the results and the people are respecting me, I stay.

Q. Can you continue delivering as well as you have been in F1 and at QPR as well?

FB: Whatever you're doing, what's most important is the people managing the situation.

In Formula One I believe I have very good people with me, and exactly the same in football. What you need is to organise the club, and then it doesn't take away any time, because now we have everybody: a finance director, a commercial director, a sporting director, a coach, players, everything.

The results will go up and down - you never know - but it's not something taking my time out of Formula One.

Q. You talk about fun in F1, there wasn't a lot last year because of what happened off-track - do you have any concerns that the racing could be overshadowed again?

FB: I hope not, I hope everybody talks about sport; last year was enough. But also we discovered something different last year, which was a new experience for everybody.

And I want to tell you something. Our business managed the situation very well because the Federation punished [McLaren over 'spygate'] and then after we started again.

I think together we all cleaned up our sport - I don't want to penalise anybody, but there was a big problem, we solved it and we start again with a clean piece of paper.

It's happened with football, cycling, many sports, but I think we learned quite well together.

And it's very difficult - this is important - to control all the employees you have, because when you have 1,000 employees in the company it's becoming more and more difficult to control everybody.

But I hope after the example last year people have learned. If we look at it in a positive way, it was managed very well by the Federation.

Q. How is your business relationship with Fernando - is he still with the management company?

FB: Nothing has changed. Consistency, we always want consistency. Nothing's changed.

Q. Do you think it will be frustrating for Fernando if you're not able to deliver a car this season that will match his ambitions?

FB: Let's see how it goes in the next few months. You know, Renault arrived in Formula One in 2001, and I think apart from 2007 we have pretty much had a good car.

If you see what happened to Ferrari in 2005 it was a little bit the same. The only race they won was in the United States - and that was because they were racing by themselves. If last year I was racing by myself I would have won! Unfortunately there were 10 other teams...

Q. Do you think the new car is a big improvement on the R27? Is everything on schedule?

FB: Everything is on schedule. I don't know how quick the car is - don't forget we've done only one test, which was for reliability mileage, and we will start working on the car in Barcelona.

For the moment there's nothing wrong, but I don't know myself. Sure it's better than last year's car, but this is not so difficult; where we are competitively I don't know yet.

Q. Last year you had a bit of illness - are you over that now?

FB: I'm fine. It was tough last year for me because between everything it was a bit too much, but I'm fine now. I'm more relaxed and my health is okay, I've had all the check-ups and for the moment there is nothing wrong.

Q. Do you have any ambitions to succeed Max Mosley as FIA president?

FB: Me? First, you know Max does this for free, and that's not really my thing. I don't enjoy working for free! And also Max is working very hard, many hours. No, no, no...