Monday March 20th, 2000

By Timothy Collings

One of the most colourful men in Formula One over the last decade, Italian Flavio Briatore, will be given a warm welcome when he resumes as Benetton team director before Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Briatore was the architect of Benetton's successes of the mid-1990s and the man who turned Michael Schumacher into a world champion. His rivals know that one of the toughest competitors in the pitlane is back in business.

"He is sure to revitalise the team and the deal that brings Renault into the sport will be great for our morale," said Austrian driver Alexander Wurz, who was a test driver for the chain-smoking, silver-haired Briatore in the old days.

"Flavio brought me into Formula One and he is a good team chief. I have a good relationship with him and he always listens to me."

Briatore's Formula One comeback as Benetton team chief follows Renault's $120 million purchase of the Anglo-Italian team on Thursday.

He starts work at Benetton headquarters at Enstone, southern England, on Monday with the team hoping he can rekindle the spark of success which led Benetton to the drivers' title in 1994 and the drivers' and constructors' crowns in 1995.

"I am looking forward to the challenge and I am happy to be back with the Benetton outfit," said Briatore.

"I want to make the team competitive again and I told Jean Todt of Ferrari last week that the battle is now starting again."

Briatore Spent Time on the Sport's Fringes

Since leaving Benetton, where he was managing director under the team's ownership by the Benetton group, Briatore has spent the last 2-1/2 years on the fringes of the sport and in the European gossip columns.

His well-publicised relationship with British supermodel Naomi Campbell kept him in the headlines as often as his creation and administration of the Supertec business, which serviced and supplied Renault's old engines for Formula One customers.

Briatore's successes with Benetton, after joining as commerical director in 1989, came in tandem with Renault who were the team's engine suppliers. Renault had pulled out of the sport at the end of the 1997 season.

Disillusioned and tired, Briatore spent time recharging his batteries and rekindling various of his other interests, including soccer (he is a keen AC Milan fan and friend of Silvio Berlusconi), before taking over the Supertec operation.

Born in northern Italy in 1951, he has enjoyed a varied career in many areas of business, loves glamorous company and has a flair for marketing.

He speaks English and French fluently as well as his native Italian and is popular and well-liked in the F1 paddock, if not respected by all of the traditionalists who frown on his informal and often unorthodox approach.

At Benetton, in the mid-1990s, he built the team around the talent of Schumacher and concentrated his own time heavily in the attraction of sponsorship through all-out marketing campaigns. This resulted in Benetton's long-term partnership with the Japanese tobacco brand Mild Seven.

When Schumacher was attracted away after his two title-winning seasons by the challenge of leading Ferrari back to the top of the sport, Briatore lost both his driver and the heart of his team.

His technical director Ross Brawn soon followed the German driver to Italy and so too did chief designer Rory Byrne.

Break-Up Of Benetton Team led to Briatore's Departure

The signings of Austrian Gerhad Berger and Sicilian-born Frenchman Jean Alesi to succeed the old group failed to work out and Benetton fell into a trough of mediocrity which frustrated Briatore and led to his resignation.

When he left Benetton, at the end of 1997, he was replaced by Briton David Richards but, within a year, he too had been succeeded by Luciano Benetton's son Rocco.

Now Briatore is returning to take over from Rocco Benetton whose family name will remain on the car, as a title sponsor, until the 2002 season when a new all-Renault chassis and engine package is wheeled out to signal the French company's true return as a major competitor.

"This is another era and another time," said Briatore.

"The new Renault V10 engines will be not be ready until 2002 for racing and that is when we start with that package as the Renault team. But, until then, we have to do our job and to be competitive as Benetton."