The Formula 1 team bosses' press conference at the Spanish Grand Prix marked the first appearance in such a session for Flavio Briatore for a decade and a half, following his change in position within the Alpine Formula 1 structure.
Briatore, who headed Alpine's predecessors Benetton and Renault in F1 before being banned (and then unbanned) from the sport as a result of 2008's Singapore Grand Prix deliberate crash scandal, has had his position with the current Alpine squad expanded following the sudden exit of team boss Oliver Oakes - who Briatore had been working close with - for personal reasons.
Though Alpine racing director Dave Greenwood had been assigned as the team representative following Oakes' exit, it is Briatore who has taken over "duties previously held" by Oakes - which has resulted in him facing the media during the Friday press conference at Barcelona.
With no shortage of questions coming his way, Briatore was both blunt and cryptic in equal measure - leaving for a fair amount to dissect.
Schumacher answer shows need for a different solution
Briatore's presence in the room turned what should've been a boilerplate Friday press conference into if not appointment viewing, then certainly a real novelty. "How refreshing it is to have Flav back," mused Christian Horner accordingly. "He had a bit of time out - but it is so much fun, these press conferences were so boring before you came back."
But it was also very clear from very early on that this isn't a long-term solution - at least as long as you subscribe to the idea that F1 team bosses have to be very flexible with what they say in public, and especially in the hyper-public confines of an FIA presser.
There's a reason Red Bull doesn't have Helmut Marko as its team boss. And there's a reason most F1 team bosses lean heavily on - their own personal flavours of, but still - PR speak.
Briatore's answer to a fairly innocuous question about Mick Schumacher's candidacy for an Alpine seat included, in a quick almost deliberately half-muttered salvo, phrases like "I don't understand what you want to know" and "I don't think that's the question to ask me now" - and when press conference host Tom Clarkson pressed for an answer, he got "I don't want to talk about that" in return.
There's no perception in F1 that Schumacher is a real contender for any Alpine seat any time soon, but he's still part of the Alpine family via his World Endurance Championship link. In a similar scenario, 80% of F1 team bosses would've either paid some vague lip service to the idea of Mick Schumacher the F1 driver or tried to give the most tactful 'no' possible.
Briatore is in a position in his career and life where, at 75, he doesn't have to. It's not wholly surprising, but that's not the modern F1 team boss mould. That mould was reflected by Oakes - and it is clear Alpine and Briatore will need to find their own Oakes 2.0. - Valentin Khorounzhiy
How that search is going
And for what it's worth, it sounds like Briatore is aware of that.
"We're looking," he said of the search for Oakes' replacement. "We always… we don't want to make any mistake. I prefer to take some time.
"But at the moment we decide what will be the new team manager, put in this way, we [will] tell you.
"There are a lot of people responsible doing this kind of job, but we're looking for somebody good, somebody who understands [what it'll take to be] part of the team.
"I know a few people who want to be part of this new trip with Alpine and we'll decide quick."
As for the circumstances surrounding Oakes' exit, Briatore said: " I feel sorry for Ollie, honestly, because I have a very good relationship with Ollie. He was a good team principal, but nothing… You know, like everybody [knows], for personal reasons, he stopped and resigned from Alpine." - VK
Alpine not where Briatore wants…
When Briatore returned to a Formula 1 role with Alpine at last year's Spanish Grand Prix, he reckoned it would take two years for the squad to start making serious progress.
Ten months into his tenure (he knows it is that long because he says he has been counting his pay cheques), after some tumultuous events that has included the squad cycling through two team principals in Bruno Famin and Oakes, he admits that things have not advanced as far as he would like.
For while he feels that things have improved behind the scenes at the factory, Alpine's gains can only truly be measured by hard results on track.
"I think it's difficult when you arrive in a team, especially in Alpine," he said. "We make some progress but we are not there in this moment.
"What is more important? The result. We are not there in this moment. I think we make some progress, absolutely, but we do not see this progress in the performance."
Briatore suggests that part of the difficulty comes from Alpine having undergone a period of upheaval, including changing identity from Renault in 2021.
"[It's] not easy because the team went through a lot of change, especially in the last four, five years, not only now," he said.
"But little by little we try to put the team together, the people together. And we're looking for next year as well for the new engine and the new gearbox from Mercedes. So this is our goal for next year.
"In the meantime we need to be more competitive. We are not competitive for the moment, like I want, but it takes time.
"You see this maestro next to me [Horner], take a lot of time to building a winning car, a winning race, a winning team. I know I've done it before. I hope I do it again." - Jon Noble
…but it's right to dream of a better future
While Briatore talked of a two-year plan in Spain last year for Alpine to make an impression in F1, he more recently mentioned an ambition to be fighting for the world championship in 2027.
That may seem to be quite a tall order right now based on where Alpine is in the pecking order (currently in ninth place in the constructors' championship), but he thinks it right to at least have some bold ambitions.
Plus, the squad's switch to Mercedes customer engines and gearboxes in 2026, allied to the opportunity afforded by all new regulations, at least gives hope that there could be a bit of a shake-up in F1.
"You need to dream as well," he said. "When you are in F1, you're dreaming as well to be able to do the job because of hope. And in this moment, the team is quite new.
"The team in this moment is not performing like I wanted because…a lot of the situation in the team is not clear. But we need to clear up everything."
Briatore said he hoped that 2025 could be used as a way to get the house in order, before fighting for podium finishes next year and then stepping it up the season after.
"Why not 2027?" he asked. "You know, we see what happened to Red Bull, we see what happened to everybody else. Dependent as well, what kind of driver we have in 2027." - JN
This is Colapinto's 'first race'
Spain is the third weekend since Alpine replaced Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto, although Briatore continues to talk as though it is a made-up narrative that this is a five-race deal for now.
"[How many] races? I don't know, honestly," Briatore claimed.
"I never said five races, three races, four races, one race - we'll see."
That's despite being Briatore signing off an Alpine press release ahead of the Imola weekend that was titled "BWT Alpine Formula One Team announces that Franco Colapinto will drive alongside Pierre Gasly for the next five races", that claimed there would be "a new evaluation before the British Grand Prix in July, and that quoted Briatore as saying: "Having reviewed the opening races of the season, we have come to the decision to put Franco in the car alongside Pierre for the next five races."
What Briatore means is that Colapinto could race for more or less than five races subject to his performance. But it still comes across as odd. In any case, it really is performance that matters - and so far, Colapinto's shunted out of qualifying at Imola, then spent a tricky first weekend in Monaco off the pace (although he did manage a full race distance for a second week in a row).
Briatore's not one for being patient, but he is actually viewing this weekend as Colapinto's first real event, given Imola was literally a crash course and Monaco (where Alpine was nowhere anyway) is a terrible place to go when unfamiliar with your machinery and slightly low on confidence after a qualifying shunt.
"We need to wait one second to judge Franco," said Briatore. "We'll see this race.
"In Monte Carlo he didn't qualify well, the race is very boring, very annoying. Let's see.
"This is the first real race of Franco. If Colapinto is performing, he's driving the car. If he's not performing, we'll see."
Doohan is still in the picture as a reserve, as is another young driver Paul Aron. Briatore reiterated this is all about getting the right drivers for 2026, "so whatever experiment I need to do, I do it".
He added: "I don't know in this moment if Franco stays all season or not, let's see. Depends on the performance. What we're looking for is just the performance, nothing else." - Scott Mitchell-Malm
He's not sure what Gasly's true potential is
Pierre Gasly has asserted himself as Alpine's undisputed number one driver since Briatore arrived 12 months ago.
First he saw off Esteban Ocon convincingly in the second half of 2024, he proved too good for Doohan to get close enough to for Alpine to keep him in the car beyond six races this season, and so far Colapinto's been kept at arm's length.
But Briatore's clearly not sure just how good Gasly is. It took two attempts to get Briatore to ask a question about whether Gasly is world champion material. When he finally answered, he was not exactly convincing.
"You know, the chicken and eggs - if you don't have the competitive car, it's very difficult to understand where we are with the driver," Briatore said.
"First, the driver needs the balance of the car, the car [to be] competitive, and the vision. Maybe feel strong in the car.
"It's very difficult to understand what level is Gasly in the moment, if you don't give him the competitive car. Let's build him the competitive car and after we know where we are in the driver.
"I believe for everybody it's the same. But the most important is in the performance of the car, the driver, and they go together. The car is not competitive.
"I don't know, [maybe] Christian has a better idea."
Gasly's ex-team boss Horner, sat aside Briatore, replied bluntly "I have no idea what you're talking about it" - and it sounded like genuine incomprehension of Briatore's answer, rather than dodging a response about a driver who Red Bull dropped after half a season.
Ultimately, what Briatore said is not unfair. Drivers are hard to judge when stuck in midfield machinery. So it's not to say Briatore doesn't rate Gasly, but it wasn't the immediate affirmation that team bosses usually give their obvious lead driver.
And even if that's more a reflection of Briatore not having time for the kind of hyperbole others embrace a little too readily, you'd forgive Gasly for thinking he deserved a slightly more rousing assessment. - SMM
