Renault were, for a long time, at the top of the formula one game. Led by Flavio Briatore the team held a very high place on the F1 throne. Fernando Alonso confirmed the team's status as one of the best when he took home the world championship in 2005 and again in 2006. Then Briatore made the mistake of letting his young star go. This year Alonso moved to McLaren, taking his world title with him. Now Renault are lagging behind the other teams in this years championship and need to step up the pace if they are to be in with a chance of winning again.
Briatore, on the F1 website (www.formula1.com), claims that his team's fall in success is nothing to worry about,
"we know where we stand - and we are working hard to resolve the problems. It is a fact that every top team dominates for a time, then drops away a little bit, and perhaps that is the case here too to some extent."
One wonders what Briatore can do this season to get his team back to the top and in a position to challenge BMW or Ferrari. I honestly don't think that it can be done the way Renault is operating at the moment. They simply do not have the talent in the drivers to be a threat for either the constructor or drivers championship. I could be wrong, I don't claim to know it all but this is what I can at the moment.
Perhaps next year Briatore can bring it back for the Renault team but not this year. I think the man is too busy wining and dining all the models he can find at the moment. Flavio Briatore is more famous for his spending splurges and dating a string of beautiful models, including Heidi Klum, with whom he has a daughter (Leni), and Naoimi Cambell. The question is, does the attention Briatore attracts in his personal life affect the attention he attracts on the track?
I think so. I think he likes the attention. Flavio is the Hugh Hefner of the F1 world and he loves it. I think that it would do the team no harm if the boss took some time out from posing in his luxury home in the pages of glitzy magazines to tending to his ontrack duties.
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