F1: Flavio Briatore and its millionaire contract with Alpine

Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault, was looking for his friend in June 2024 to lead the resurgence of a team submerged in bad results. In return, generous concessions and lush salary.

Luca de Meo assumed as CEO of Renault in 2020in the midst of the crisis that had been unleashed in the company after the arrest, and subsequent escape, by Carlos Ghosn, his predecessor. The Italian, with a past in Fiat, VW and Seat, had to surf a difficult wave due to the context that remained after the exit of the Brazilian, accused of fiscal fraud and improper appropriation of funds. In the middle of the treasurer, Milanés’ initial task was to keep the ship afloat. Once stabilized, from Meo He began to look closely at the company’s F1 team: Alpine, where Franco Colapinto will run from the Emilia-Romagna GP.

The lack of results disturbed De Meo and spoke with his friend Flavio Briatore. “When he told me his plans for the team in 2021, I told him that he was wrong as a man, but he ignored me,” said Benetton’s former leader. The walking of the Escudería de Estone did not accommodate and in June 2024 he resorted to his old friend again: “He called me again to tell me that the team was in the Mier … I explained that the F1 is a different business, it cannot be so corporate and bureaucratic.” De Meo did not hesitate and asked him to return to F1 to help him take Alpine out of the mud. Flavio accepted, motivated by the return to a factory that walked to fatigue in his time as Benetton and Renault (in the time of Fernando Alonso). To finish convincing him, De Meo offered him an exuberant contract, so much that his salary is greater than that of the CEO himself, according to the French media L’Emora.

Briatore wins two million euros a year for his agreement as executive advisor (and now also director of the team after the resignation of Oliver Oakes). That money is quarterly, according to the French site report. De MEO, as a World Pope in the rhombus, has a salary of 1.7 million annually. But that’s not all.

Besides, Flavio, whose fortune is estimated at 400 million (has a chain of nightclubs and restaurants), also has a concession in its contract by which it will negotiate a percentage on the sponsors who throw a benefit to the team. In this way, Briatore has an open letter to look for contributing pilots. Because he chooses them as team director and, incidentally, can benefit from the contribution they bring behind. Colapinto was anointed to Briatore, replacing Jack Doohan, and the Argentine arrives with the support of Argentine companies. Alpine announced the former-Williams for five major awards: will its continuity be a sports or financial compulsa?

Those sponsor commissions had been prohibited by Laurent Rossiwho was the executive director of Alpine until 2023, when he was dismissed. According to L’Emad, Renault managers wonder if this kind of concessions with a controversial figure such as Briatore are fine in a company whose 15% of the shareholding package belongs to the State of France.