Flavio Briatore: “Drivers are no longer like they used to be”

Everything used to be better, people often say, especially old people. The 70-year-old Flavio Briatore now also has something to complain about, especially about how the drivers behave in Formula 1 these days. The former Benetton and Renault team boss has been in the sport for a long time and looks back on that period.

In addition to the role of team boss, in which he made Jos Verstappen debut in 1994 alongside Michael Schumacher, he also took on a management role at one point. He helped, among others, Fernando Alonso, some young talents and Mark Webber at the beginning of his career.

Briatore also said he helped Fernando Alonso arrange his return to the sport in 2021. Flavio recalls how he immediately recognized Spaniard Alonso’s skill when he first met him as a teenager, and he finds the contrast between today’s drivers and those of the previous generation stark.

“Everything has changed since my time in F1. The drivers are not the same. If you don’t see them in their suits, you don’t recognize them. There used to be great personalities and you saw fighting spirit, now everything is much more organized, much it.” is all more clinical. “