More chaos at Alpine

Flavio Briatore’s time back at Alpine may come to an abrupt end soon, after Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo tendered his resignation to the company’s Board of Directors last Sunday.

The Italian manager will leave his role on July 15, to run the Kering Group, owner of various luxury brands – but the name of his substitute is yet to be revealed, as Renault now scrambles to find a new leader.

Briatore was quick to say “nothing changes” for the Alpine Formula 1 team when asked what consequences de Meo’s departure would have and has insisted on that message both internally and in public in the following days.

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However, when Alpine announced the Italian was back with the team that had fired him almost 16 years ago, the statement made it clear that “Flavio Briatore has been appointed by Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo as his Executive Advisor for the Formula One Division.”

This means Briatore is not a Renault employee and had been working as de Meo’s personal advisor for the French company’s Formula 1 division.

With de Meo on his way out, whoever replaces him may decide to keep Briatore in his role as the controversial businessman desperately tries to find a new Team Principal for Alpine – someone who’ll run the day-to-day business of the team in the factory and at the races. But the new CEO may well decide he doesn’t want to keep someone in charge of the team who’s previously been banned from Formula 1 and will forever be linked to two of the sport’s biggest cheating scandals.

That’s why there are a lot of question marks surrounding the immediate future of the French team, with no one willing to accept Briatore’s offer for the role of Team Principal, as the potencial candidates for the job will now wait a couple of months to see what the new Renault management decides to do with Briatore.

Interestingly, it’s clear that former Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer is putting together a plan to start a 12th team as soon as the FIA makes an extra slot on the grid available, but the American would obviously prefer to buy an existing team and knows Enstone well.

Another former Renault man, Cyril Abiteboul, runs Hyundai’s racing division and could well bring the South Korean manufacturer to Formula 1 soon by acquiring his old team. And Gunther Steiner also looks set to have enough finance to buy a Formula 1 team or start a new one from zero.

So there are plenty of alternatives for Renault to make a profit out of selling its Formula 1 team if that’s the way the new group CEO decides to go.

That’s why these are tense times for everyone working for the Alpine Formula 1 team, as Briatore’s assurances haven’t really convinced anyone – the next few weeks will be decisive for the team’s – and the Italian’s – future.

Image: LAT

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