Flavio Briatore would only return to the helm of Renault if Adrian Newey follows him to Alpine

Flavio Briatore, who has won multiple world titles with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso at Renault team, has not been officially announced in the French team, but rumors are growing.

He has not been involved in a Formula 1 team since 2009. He left his position as team boss at Renault after the 2008 Singapore Crashgate scandal, during which Nelson Piquet Jr was instructed to deliberately crash his car to help Fernando Alonso win the race. In recent years, the flamboyant former team boss has been seen more often in the company of F1 promoters. Initially banned for life from F1, Briatore made his comeback to the paddock a few years later, as early as 2013. Although he had not been seen in F1 for several years, the Italian was notably spotted in Italy in 2023.

Without official confirmation, it nevertheless seems certain that Flavio Briatore is going to make his return to Formula 1, within the Alpine team, for a role of supervisor of the team.

Bring Adrian Newey.

The former boss of the F1 team and manager of Fernando Alonso knows Adrian Newey well. The engineer will leave Red Bull at the end of the year and although he has stated that he does not need to look for another team at the moment, it is likely that his skills will be highly sought after by other teams. He has been strongly linked to Ferrari and might ultimately take on a new challenge with Alpine thanks to Flavio Briatore.

Indeed, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra, Luca de Meo, the director of the Renault group, discussed with Flavio Briatore. The two Italians would have agreed to encourage Adrian Newey to come and address the technical gap at Alpine, and Briatore would only agree to come if such commitment is sustainable.

With only two points scored this season, the French team is struggling and must also manage discord within its driver duo.