Behind Enemy Lines: Interview with Flavio Briatore

Thanks to the nicely efficient folk at British Airways, my trip to Australia began with an unscheduled 24-hour stay at Heathrow Airport. I was not the only one affected by chaos over Europe that screwed up connections - I bumped into Pedro de la Rosa at the underground station as he tried to sort out his own disrupted plans - but that didn't make my late departure for Melbourne any less annoying. So late, in fact, that it put it me into team principal territory, for the bosses are usually the last folk to leave Europe for flyaway races.

Sure enough, a familiar face suddenly appeared in W.H. Smith in Terminal 4 on Tuesday evening. You somehow don't expect to see Flavio Briatore queuing up and buying magazines with the rest of us - I always assumed he'd be whisked away by flunkies via First Class lounges and secret VIP exits - but there he was, large as life.

What made the meeting even more fun was that Flavio was the man of the moment, for not long before news had emerged of his visit to Maranello to meet Max Mosley and the Ferrari management. This had come as news not just to the media, but to the other members of the GMPA, who had not anticipated any of their number kicking off such a dialogue in the very week of the 2008 entry deadline.

I had to ask Flav what he had been up to. "It was a meeting of the poor people!" he said with a grin. He reminded me that Renault had won the world championship last year with the fifth highest budget, and that was hard to argue with.

So what was he really up to, down in Italy? Once they'd got over the initial shock, more than one of the other GPMA bosses came to the conclusion that perhaps Briatore has a different agenda to the manufacturers.

If Renault does indeed decide anytime soon that it doesn't want to carry on spending huge sums of money on F1, then there will have to be some kind of escape route. Perhaps one that sees Flavio take over the whole show in Enstone for a nominal fee, and maybe resurrect Supertec to keep Velizy busy, and find a second customer for the French V8.

If so, then the Italian's motivation for cutting costs, especially in the contentious area of frozen engine development, is rather higher than that of some of his rivals. And, funnily enough, Briatore had plenty of time to further discuss his ideas, as Ferrari chief Jean Todt joined our flight in Singapore.

When we got to Albert Park, I sat with Briatore to get his thoughts on engines, costs and that meeting.

Q: Your meeting in Maranello caused quite a stir. What's the story behind it?

Briatore: "It's not a secret that in the last two or three years I've been working very hard to make sure that F1 is more efficient. We have a lot at stake to make this happen. The meeting in Maranello... Ferrari is part of the championship, a very big player in the championship. It was quite normal to have a meeting to understand the position of Ferrari regarding the costs. And Cosworth as well.

"It was not a meeting to split the manufacturers. It was only a meeting for more information to present to the manufacturers. Ferrari preferred to have a meeting with me, and not with somebody else, as simple as that."

Q: So Jean Todt invited you...

Max Mosley and Flavio Briatore, 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix © LAT

Briatore: "No, it was [FIA president] Max [Mosley] who really wanted to put this stuff together. We're working for the last two years, we always try, and Max and Ferrari, to find a solution to make F1 more efficient, with more stability, and this is what we've done. It was nothing secret."

Q: But the other GPMA guys didn't know what you were doing?

Briatore: "Everybody needs to be more efficient in this business. Somebody needs to jump the river. I feel it was the moment to jump the river, because we are in a very tough situation, where nobody moved."

Q: Are you in a special situation because Renault's future commitment is not clear?

Briatore: "The future commitment of Renault is we want to stay in F1. But we want F1 to be more efficient, less costly, as simple as that. It's difficult, if you have somebody in the group who says this is what the shareholders want. And other people's shareholders might say you need to win, whatever the money. A different agenda, no? Sometimes we are not in the same area.

"Renault want to stay in F1, like Ferrari, like Cosworth, on one condition - a more efficient F1. We want to win, but we need to cut dramatically the costs. On the other side, you have people saying we want to win, whatever the cost. In the mean time, you see that the people more sensible are winning, and the people not sensible are losing!"

Q: So was it a good meeting?

Briatore: "Fantastic. You know, meetings in F1 are usually three hours of fighting to organise the next meeting! It was six or seven hours, very, very smooth, because it was done by business people - sensible business people. And it was not only about engineers who want to play with some more money."

Q: One of the results is that now there can be an engine upgrade on January 1st each year. Is that a step forward?

Briatore: "We're talking about stability. We talk about the stability of chassis, but we need the same for engines for five years, and every year there's some possibility for development in one controlled range, with this we still keep the technology, we still keep going, and we are more efficient.

"We have one homologated engine, and homologated parts, but every year we know a small step is possible. I know already how much it costs me, I know already how much is my budget. I'm not doing my budget in the dark, I'm doing the budget with what I know. We are a serious company now. I go to my shareholders, I talk about the next five years of F1, it costs you that."

Q: Is the June 1st deadline for homologation still happening?

Briatore: "We need to sit together and have a more efficient way. We don't want to penalise anybody. First, everybody needs to achieve reliability. But we don't want people to spend fortunes on development, and the reliability is not there because instead of working on reliability, they're working on steps.

"It shouldn't be about 'I have the best engine.' Have an engine for doing racing. Sometimes our people forget our target. Our target, our business, is racing, and making the people enjoy our show."

Q: I've seen you talking to people like Mario Theissen this weekend. What has been the reaction from the other GPMA guys?

Flavio Briatore and Jean Todt, 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix © LAT

Briatore: "Mario says he's happy. Some people think that we jumped, they feel that Renault jumped at this moment. But Mario is happy to have F1 run more efficiently, and I see the guy from Mercedes, Norbert Haug, and he thinks the same. I didn't see Ron Dennis yet, but I'm sure he's happy too to have F1 more efficient."

Q: Were they confused at first about what you were doing?

Briatore: "Ferrari is a big player in F1, so this is logical that we get together for [a discussion on] the F1 of the future. I'm sure that everybody wants to be more efficient, invest in the right way, and not waste money.

"The environment around us is not so wonderful. Any technology we have, we have to really make sure that the general public understands what we're doing. F1 is the top of the technology, but from a marketing point of view we need to explain to the people watching TV what kind of technology we're talking about.

"For example, an engine for low fuel consumption is technology, because everybody understands maybe it's good for my car next year. We need to have technology that's useful for the manufacturers for reducing costs with the normal car."

Q: So what's the next step?

Briatore: "For 2008, it looks like we go ahead with the majority, that's in the new sporting regulations. And now what we have to decide is what we do in 2007. If we're using a 2006 engine for the future, maybe it makes sense for 2007."

Q: So are we going to see the return of Supertec - and maybe you as a team owner?

Briatore: "No. I've done that already. I'm trying to keep F1 going in the future, with me or without me - it makes no difference. But it's a fantastic sport, and Bernie put this event together. It's very difficult to put a big event together and keep it together.

"We want to see F1 healthy for the future, and the only way is to have efficiency, like we have in any other business."