Q&A: Flavio Briatore

Q: Did you miss the sport while you were away?
"I had Supertec, so I was always with a little foot in F1."

Q: But you didn't come to many races...
"No, because coming to the races when you have nothing to do is boring like hell. What can you do? It's much better watching TV. F1 is great, if you're busy like I am now. But only walking around from garage to another saying hello to people, after two hours it's enough. I didn't miss anything. The engine job is completely different from the chassis job."

Q: Are you more motivated after your break?
"For sure. For me 1996-97 was the finish of one era. We won too much in a very short time. I didn't have any background in motor racing before, and I was quite bored already. I didn't have the motivation any more. I spoke with the family about selling my shares, and the family was quite happy to go ahead with different people, like David Richards and afterwards with Rocco (Benetton). For me it was fine. I enjoyed myself and came back with Supertec, because there was this commercial opportunity. And in another way it kept us in touch with the technology of Renault - you never knew when they wanted to come back. And now Renault is coming back, thanks to Supertec. If there was no Supertec, all the people would be disappearing."

Q: Did you always have a plan to return in the same job?
"I don't think this is the same job. I never wanted to come back like before; I'm coming back with a constructor. It's a big difference in F1 now."

Q: But did you always have a desire to take charge of Benetton again?
"I had no idea. This was a really different opportunity with Renault, and we negotiated for seven months with the family, and we found out the team was the best for us. Benetton has everything; a big wind tunnel, good people. The point about Benetton was the future was very grey. Now, the situation is different. Everybody knows whose behind the team, who's the owner of the team. Renault is the kind of company who knows exactly what is needed for winning in F1. The future is there, the technology is there. Now we have Supertec, and I think we've already done quite a good job. The engine for 2002 will be completely different, and I hope we bring the team back up."

Q: How did you persuade Renault to put their support behind you?
"I don't know - ask Renault! We decided together six or seven months ago that it was a good opportunity. Renault wanted to come back into F1, wanted to come back as a team. Renault wanted everything - they wanted to win with a chassis and engine. And Renault believed the best guy to do the job was me. I don't know whether the judgement was good or bad - I have no idea! But anyway, this is what the people believed. In the end Renault convinced me to come on board to this package, and gave me two months to decide. It wasn't easy for me to come back day by day into this team, especially this team. I believed in the beginning there was a big job to do. There's still a lot to do, but now I think Benetton is not so bad."

Q: Did they consider building an all-French car, like before?
"At the beginning they were talking like that, but I didn't want to get involved in any kind of disaster."

Q: Were there other teams like Jordan and Arrows under consideration?
"Yes, we had three opportunities basically. We felt Benetton was the best. I know the team already, because I was seven or eight years in the team, and we never fell below third place in that time. In the last two years what was missing was management - there was a lot of confusion. Renault felt very strongly as well to buy this team because Benetton have everything to build on - the technology is there, the machinery, the people in the factory are very good. It's missing some management, some engineering. We need to move very quickly to try to re-organise the team properly, because two years is not a long time - it's nothing in F1."

Q: Was Benetton chosen because that was the only team where you could become outright boss?
"It's no question of boss or not boss. If we buy, we buy 100%. The deal was always to buy 100%, not a deal for 30 or 40 or 50. That was a condition, to buy 100% of the shares in a team. Renault decided to have this adventure with me, and I'm proud of that, but these are the facts."

Q: Are you an employee or will you have a shareholding in the team?
"We'll see that later, but for the moment I work for the Renault group."

Q: And Benetton is just a sponsor now?
"Benetton is just a sponsor for this year and 2001. In 2002 we come back officially with a yellow car and the Renault name."

Q: Why not earlier?
"Because we are not ready. The team is not ready, and especially Renault is not ready. We don't have the engine to beat McLaren or Ferrari. We're working very hard on development of the new engine for 2002, and in the mean time we go ahead with Supertec, try our best and get more experience. It'll be Supertec with maybe 'Engineering by Renault'. We're not sure yet."

Q: So you decided not to do a Jaguar and change identity overnight?
"We want to have a yellow car fighting straight away for the podium every week. This is our goal in 2002. From now until then we need to prepare the team, and have the team engine and chassis ready."

Q: Have all the changes of key personnel in the past few years been bad for the team?
"I don't know if it's bad or good, but at the moment it's looks like we're back in business. But sure, when people come and go it's not good. Now we need to start again, fitting people in the areas that we need. I believe it's much easier at the moment, because it's no longer a private family supporting this business. It's somebody who won six championships in a row. This was the only way for me to come back into F1, with this kind of set-up. I never wanted to come back to be team manager of Benetton again, with Supertec. But like this, I think it's a good challenge."

Q: Was Bernie Ecclestone involved in the deal?
"Really not. Not because I didn't want Bernie involved, but I know Renault very well, I know the Benetton family very well. Sure, I was keeping him updated on what's going on, because it's important for him to have Renault back. In the last years we supported teams like Williams and BAR, and I believe we've been quite good for F1 as well."

Q: Will there still be a second Supertec engine supply?
"My feeling is that manufacturers should supply two teams. I don't have any problems with that at all. My feeling is to maintain Supertec to give the chance for some teams with no engines to compete at a high level. This year we see already that Arrows is much better. It's only a logistic problem, but technically we believe that with Mecachrome, with Renault Sport, we are strong enough to support one or two client teams. Sure, Renault might be one step ahead, but it's good for us to train young engineers. Williams and Benetton was very good together, fighting for the championship. Maybe if last year somebody else had a Mercedes, Mercedes wouldn't have missed the constructors' championship. Who knows!"

Q: F1 has changed a lot in the last few years - is it going to be much harder to be successful than before?
"When I arrived in F1, McLaren dominated every race. After that I saw Williams dominate every race, then Benetton for two years. If it was only about money, some teams would win every year in a row. Fortunately in this sport it's not only the money. It's the same thing in soccer, it's the same thing in F1. Sure, you need enough money to do the proper job."

Q: And what about Michael Schumacher - would you like to have him back?
"If he's not too old in 2002, why not?"