Who is Flavio Briatore?

The most important man behind the youngest World Champion in F1 history Fernando Alonso, is, aside from his father undoubtedly his Italian manager Flavio Briatore. Flavio is both Managing Director of the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team and manager of the youngest Formula One champion.

Before Flavio was known as the flamboyant businessman in Formula One, he did many other things, most of them with excellence. Flavio Briatore, the current Managing Director of Renault F1, was born in Cuneo, Italy. Cuneo is the capital of the province of Cuneo, Piedmont and is located at the foot of the Maritime Alps.

Briatore found early work in ski instruction and restaurant management. In the 1970's he became involved with the Italian stock exchange. During this period of time, Flavio met Luciano Benetton, founder of the Benetton clothing company. The two became friends and eventually business partners. When the Benetton company opened his first five stores in the United States, in 1979, Luciano appointed Flavio director of the group's American operations.

Benetton is known in the United States for producing a long-running series of controversial, sometimes offensive, advertisements that have caused a number of media critics to accuse the company of deliberately creating controversy in order to sell its products.
Due to Benetton's unorthodox method of franchising, the chain experienced a brief boom in American popularity. By 1989 there were 800 stores in the US. As all these stores started up, Flavio had taken a part of each franchising agreement and was a very wealthy man by that time. As store owners began to complain of competition from other Benetton stores, the number of stores decreased to 200 and Briatore began to look for a new business.

In 1988, Flavio Briatore attended the Australian Grand Prix and shortly thereafter, despite having proclaimed his lack of interest in the Formula One sport, Benetton made him commercial director of their new F1 constructor, Benetton Formula. Soon Benetton fired the team management and instated Briatore as Managing Director. In an attempt to raise Benetton to a competetive team, Flavio hired and quickly fired engineer John Barnard. Barnard's successor was Tom Walkinshaw, whose greatest achievement was to lure young driver Michael Schumacher from the Jordan Team after his first F1 race in 1991. Michael Schumacher went on to win a race in both 1992 and 1993 before claiming the World Championship in a Benetton in 1994.

At the end of 1994, Briatore purchased the ailing Ligier constructor to acquire its stock of Renault engines. FIA regulations, however, did not permit him to own the team, so he sold it to Walkinshaw. With the Renault engines and Flavio in charge of the complete management of Benetton, Schumacher again won the title in 1995. When the German and a number of key engineers departed for Ferrari in 1996, the Benetton Team slipped backward but however managed to finish second in the constructor's championship in 1996.

Flavio meanwhile had purchased a share of the Minardi Team in 1996 but unable to sell it to British American Tobacco, he sold out to fellow owners Giancarlo Minardi and Gabriele Rumi. Benetton thereafter fired the Italian in 1997 in favor of David Richards. As Renault stepped out of F1 after winning the world championship with Villeneuve in a Renault poweved Williams, Flavio managed the company that sold rebadged Renault engines from 1998 to 2000 under the names Supertec and Mecachrome. When Benetton sold his team to Renault in 2000, Briatore was once again appointed Managing Director. Since then he has been building up a team that was fighting with Minardi in 2001 to a championship winning constructor in 2005.

You may wonder when he finds the time to do so, but that isn't all the Italian is doing. He also acts as agent for a number of Formula One drivers including Australian Mark Weber, Fernando Alonso and upcoming talent Heikki Kovalainen.

Flavio is often described as a playboy, but he clearly works like a dog. Now he lives in a Chelsea penthouse and is at his office most days from eight until eight. He's never in one country for long, the life of a Formula One boss includes flying around the globe in his private jet to the different race meetings. The Italian never takes more than a few days' holiday at a time.

Flavio Briatore "I don’t know what it means to have a month of vacation." Usually he spends Christmas and Easter at Lion in the Sun, his house in Kenya with 12 bedrooms, four swimming pools and a cool 50 staff, or his boat, The Lady in Blue, in Sardinia where he owns the famous Billionaire nightclub, the half-indoor, half-open-air hangout where girls wear expensive scraps of nothing and champagne costs more than your flight.
Flavio also owns Twiga in Forte dei Marmi, one of Italy's most successful nightclubs.

When Flavio gets out clubbing, which he claims to do only three or four times a month now, he is usually squiring a model. He was briefly married to Israeli property heiress, Nina Cohen and then dated Naomi Campbell for a few years. They are still great friends.
Flavio "Naomi is a super girl, she’s so sweet, much nicer than people imagine. She’s very generous, maybe too much."

More recently the girl on Flavio's arm was German Victoria's Secret model Heidi Klum, 30. Things seemed to be going swimmingly and there was talk of a wedding.
Flavio "Heidi is the one. I know that. She is fantastic. I am happier than I’ve ever been."
December last year it was announced that Heidi was pregnant and suddenly things went awry. Klum had been seen out with pop singer Seal, while Briatore was spotted dating jewellery heiress Fiona Swarovski and model Kat Mack and kissing 19-year-old German model Vanessa Hilger. In 2004, Klum gave birth to a daughter called Leni.

Flavio Briatore is well-known for his flamboyant life-style and his relations with beautiful women, but Flavio is more than that. The Italian is a cunning businessman, who has known many successes in his life and still many to come.