Flavio Briatore on Alpine's $3.5bn turnaround, Gucci deal and winning culture

Flavio Briatore is dragging Alpine's Enstone operation back to its racing roots, transforming an $80 million team into a $3.5 billion enterprise and landing a $150 million Gucci title deal. In a wide-ranging interview, the outspoken executive advisor made winning his central mantra, but left lingering doubts about whether Pierre Gasly represents the championship-caliber answer Alpine desperately needs.

Why it matters:

As F1 teams swell into faceless corporate entities, Briatore offers a visceral reminder that culture drives value. His insistence that staff feel part of a race team—not a "touristing" operation—has re-energized Enstone's factory floor. More importantly, the Gucci sponsorship proves he can still rewrite F1's commercial playbook, marrying luxury fashion to grand prix racing with the same audacity he brought to Benetton.

The details:

• Briatore engineered the $150 million Gucci deal from an idea he initially considered "very bad," explicitly linking it to his Benetton marketing legacy.
• Team Enstone's valuation reportedly jumped from $80 million to $3.5 billion, underscoring a dramatic financial rehabilitation.
• He praised Pierre Gasly, yet interviewer Darren Cox detected the compliment fell short of anointing him a Schumacher- or Alonso-level talent.
• Briatore wants 24 sprint races on the calendar, arguing the format only works with greater frequency.
• Factory staff reportedly feel they work for "a racing team again," a sentiment Briatore considers essential to performance.

Between the lines:

Briatore's confidence remains undimmed—he spoke for nearly an hour when 30 minutes were allotted—but his words betrayed a familiar hunger for a transformative driver. Gasly is respected, but the comparison to Briatore's iconic Benetton era stops abruptly at the cockpit door. The commercial machinery is whirring, yet the on-track narrative still lacks its protagonist.

What's next:

Briatore will keep pushing Alpine's commercial and cultural revolution, but 2026 looms as the proving ground. Enstone must find a way to convert boardroom momentum into podium finishes, or risk becoming a case study in marketing genius outpacing sporting reality.