Flavio Briatore says it is fine to dream at least for Alpine to be able to challenge for F1 titles in 2026 or 2027, as he adds on his time, changes and drivers.
After all the controversies and bans in the background, Briatore made his comeback in F1 with Alpine – the team he had large part of his journey under different guises. He returned at a time when the French outfit was in turmoil (is still is in some ways) and has had multiple task at hand.
He had support from new team boss Oliver Oakes, but as it is with Alpine curse, the Brit resigned a couple of weeks back due to his personal issues. The manufacturer now has to find a new team boss, while Briatore takes some of the charge which the Brit was looking after.
In the small run, they also had to take the decision to drop Jack Doohan and take in Franco Colapinto in trial method to decide the best pair for 2026 and beyond. They have one set factor which helps some bit, i.e Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman has done well and Briatore has praised his worth.
Another decision taken a while back was ditching the Renault power unit programme and for Alpine to become a Mercedes customer under the new regulation. Briatore shared his cost cap idea as well, while noting about the changes he is seeing from his time in the 90s and early 2000s.
How’s it has been –
Briatore: “Oh, it’s less than that. It’s 10months. I see my pay cheque it’s ten months only! It’s not 11. Fine. You know? We’re back in the business, with Alpine. Not easy because the team has gone through a lot of change, especially in the last four or five years, not only now. But little by little, we try to put the team together, the people together. We’re looking for next year as well — for the new engine and the new gearbox from Mercedes-Benz. So, this is our goal for next year. In the meantime, we need to be more competitive. We are not competitive for the moment, like I want, but takes time.
“You see this maestro next to me, it takes a lot of time to build a winning car, a winning race, a winning team. I know I’ve done it before. I hope I’ll do it again. I think so. You know guys, it’s difficult when you arrive at a team, especially at Alpine, and we make some progress, but we are not there at the moment. And what is more important is the result. We are not there in this moment. I think we made some progress, absolutely, but we don’t see the progress yet in the performance.”
Story about 2026, 2027 –
Briatore: “You need a dream as well. When you are in Formula 1, you’re dreaming as well to do the job. You hope. And in this moment, the team is quite new. The team is not performing like I wanted because we still have… a lot of the situation in the team is not clear. But we need to clear up everything. Before we start performing like I want, I believe we need all of 2025 now, and we need 2026 to be competitive, to at least sometimes see the podium very close. These are what we’re looking for. And why not 2027? We see what happened to Red Bull. We see what happened to everybody else. Depends as well on what kind of driver we have in 2027.”
Oakes’ departure –
Briatore: “We’re looking. For the moment, nothing changed. I feel sorry for Ollie, honestly, because I had a very good relationship with him. He was a good team principal. Everybody knows for personal reasons he stopped and resigned from Alpine. We’re looking. We don’t want to make any mistake. I’m prepared to take some time. But the moment we decide what is the new team manager, put in this way, we’ll tell you.”
Schumacher story –
Briatore: “Well, I’m not sure why we’re talking about Schumacher now. We are here in 2025. I don’t understand. What you want to know? Yeah. Sure. Everybody said that. I don’t think it’s the question to ask here, now. Next question. I don’t want to talk about that.”
Performance of Gasly, can win title with Alpine –
Briatore: “I don’t know. We see McLaren, two years ago, three years ago, was in the bottom of the line. We see Renault was in the bottom of the line two years and after, they won the championship. We see Benetton was always in ’91, ’92, ’93 in the bottom of the line in qualifying. In ’94, ’95, ’96, we competed. In ’95, ’96, we won the championship. In this business fortunes are changing a lot. A few years ago, Red Bull was dominating completely. Now McLaren is dominating completely. Everybody is working hard in this business. We are 10 teams. Everybody wants to be the best of the 10 teams. I hope it’s not nonsense – working. If I believe in 2027 that I don’t compete, I prefer to stay on the beach drinking Coca-Cola and not to come here in this warm weather in Barcelona, sweating.
“It is chicken and eggs. If you don’t have a competitive car, it’s very difficult to understand where you are with the driver. First, the driver needs the balance of the car, needs the car to be competitive. Feels strong in the car. It’s very difficult to understand what level Gasly is at in this moment if we don’t give him a competitive car. Let’s build him the competitive car, and after we’ll know where we are with the driver. I believe it’s the same for everybody. The most important thing is the performance of the car and the driver — they go together. In Formula 1 If the car is not competitive, I don’t know.”
Colapinto’s performance –
Briatore: “Franco Colapinto — we need to wait one second to judge Franco. We see. We see this race. We need the full race. We did Monte Carlo. It was a very special race for everybody. We made a lot of mistakes in qualifying. And in Monte Carlo, you know, qualifying well is the race. Especially this race. Monte Carlo, it was very boring and very annoying. Let’s see. This is the first real race of Franco. Races, I don’t know, honestly. I never tell five races, three races, four races, one race. We see. If Colapinto is performing he’s driving the car. If not, we’ll see. 2025 is a year we need to prepare ourselves for 2026. So whatever experiment I need doing, we’re doing. I don’t know at this moment if Franco will stay for the season or not, but let’s see. Depends on the performance. We’re only looking at the performance — nothing else.”
Then and now, cost cap –
Briatore: “Formula 1, for sure, is different now. But the difference with the cost cap — I believe it’s good. This was a very good idea to have the cost cap for the teams. I believe it should stay. I also believe the salary of the driver should be part of that — not only what we have now. We need to increase it, because we’re spending really… What I see the difference between my time in Renault and now, the cost really has gone up dramatically. The races are the same. What you see on television is the same. The fighting between the drivers is the same. The best driver is winning the race — etcetera. What we now see is the cost. The cost has increased dramatically.
“It’s not because the cost increased that the business is better or the show is better. It’s the same. The race, for me, is the same. It’s very competitive. We have great drivers. But the costs go up dramatically. The cost budget cap was a very good idea. I believe we should increase the budget including the salaries of the driver. Yeah. Absolutely. Include it. From what I see, there are a lot of changes in the perception of Formula 1. Now we see Miami, we see the United States — etcetera, etcetera — and the perception of Formula 1 is much, much bigger. If you remember in our time, it was impossible, I think, in the United States — Phoenix, no spectators. There were horses next to us and the people who were supposed to come and see Formula 1 were going to the horse derby instead.
“The job that’s been done in the last 10 years about Formula 1 is unbelievable, especially in the United States. Now, I believe Formula 1 is very strong. A lot of young people follow Formula 1. In our time, it was not like that. I think in our time the average age was around 50, 55. Now you have a lot of young people. This is fantastic for Formula 1. It’s fantastic — the perception young people have about Formula 1. Young drivers, everyone communicating — it’s a really big step forward, especially in the United States.”
Here’s Pierre Gasly on Spanish GP points
