Friday March 24th, 2000

Flavio Briatore was back on the pit-wall with the Benetton team as usual at Friday's practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix. But there was a difference.

Briatore was representing Renault, not the Benetton family, and the easy description of Benetton as an Anglo-Italian team was out of date.

Since Renault purchased Benetton for 120 million dollars last week, the team has become an Anglo-French affair. The Italian days have gone.

So, too, has the casual approach some had accused the team of adopting in recent months.

"I have told the team that every race for us is the same as a company presenting its balance sheet to the shareholders," said Briatore. "We have to perform all the time."

On Friday, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was 10th fastest and Austrian Alexander Wurz was 19th.

"The team know me and what I want," said Briatore. "It was not an easy deal. It took nine months. But now I want to see some changes."

He said he had asked the team to smarten up in appearance and to change their routine for pit-stop practice by having a driver in the car rather than a mechanic. And, he said, he had asked everyone in the team to work as if they were under examination.

Briatore will continue to act as head of his Supertec engines business and promised to continue supplying rivals Arrows, as well as Benetton, with the same level of power-unit.

He said that in the year 2002 Renault -- the creators of the Supertec engines -- would be introducing a new evolution of the V10 currently supplied to the teams.

That year will also mark the arrival of the full-blown Renault team. "We are building towards that," he said. "It is the future for the team and we need to work hard now to make it a success."