Farewell Flavio: A Brief History Of F1's Playboy

In the interests of protecting the environment portions of this text have been re-cycled.

Today September 16th 2009 we have seen Flavio Briatore take his leave of Renault, and it is fair to say he departs under unfortunate circumstances.

Having guided two drivers to four world championships, he is now a very familiar face to us. Soccer tycoon, nightclub owner, and babe-magnet, Flavio Briatore is an improbable character who could have stepped from the pages of a steamy novel.

He has been in many a scrape, made an enormous fortune, and has dated some of the world's most beautiful women, including Naomi Campbell, Adriana Volpe, Eva Herzigova, Elle Macpherson, and Heidi Klum.

So who is Flavio, and where did he come from?

In this brief history of the master of bling, bonk, and billions, we take a stroll down memory lane to see how Flavio became the man he is today.

The Clothing Mogul

As a young man Flavio's nickname was Tribula, meaning someone who will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. By the late 1970's our hero had done a lot of things, and had become assistant to mafia-connected businessman Attilio Dutto in Cuneo.

In 1979 Dutto was killed by a car bomb, and his main business Paramatti Vernici collapsed into bankruptcy. Briatore moved on to Milan, where he worked in the stock market. Crucially, there he met and became friends with Luciano Benetton, founder and owner of the clothing empire.

The liquidation of Paramatti Vernici became a criminal investigation, and Briatore was convicted of fraud. Not wishing to serve his four year prison sentence, Flavio went on the run to the Virgin Islands, where he again met up with Luciano Benetton.

At the time Benetton was exanding his chain of clothing stores to the US, and he appointed his friend Flavio to run the operation.

Using a franchising business model, Briatore opened hundreds of Benetton stores in the US over the next decade, and because he received a slice of every franchise fee he became a very wealthy man.

The F1 Boss

In 1986 Benetton took over the Toleman F1 team they had previously sponsored. They were a mid-field team, but Luciano wanted better than that, and he had just the man for the job.

So on November 13 1988 Flavio Briatore was taken to see the team in action at the Adelaide Street Circuit in Australia. Thierry Boutsen scored a 5th place for Benetton, which was a good result for them.

Shortly after the race Briatore was appointed Commercial Director of Benetton Formula, and when Luciano cleared out the management in 1990 our hero became Managing Director.

That 1988 Adelaide race was interesting for a couple of F1 historical reasons. It was the last race of the turbo era, and McLaren achieved a 1 - 2 with Prost and Senna. Despite having scored less points across the season than Prost, Senna was declared World Champion because under the rules of that time only each driver's best 11 results counted towards the championship

It is axiomatic that good managers have a knack for recruiting the best people.

When our man Flavio became head of an F1 team, he had absolutely no background knowledge to lean on, so clearly he need experts to support him. In 1991 Briatore brought Tom Walkinshaw into Benetton as Engineering Director, and Ross Brawn as Technical Director.

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