Flavio Briatore believes Formula 1 as a whole would benefit from Ferrari returning to championship-winning form, despite his own role as Alpine executive advisor. With the Scuderia once again facing the prospect of finishing a season without a world title, Briatore has argued that Ferrari’s importance extends well beyond the interests of Maranello and the Tifosi.
The 2026 championship picture has increasingly favoured Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes, raising the prospect of Ferrari’s long wait for another title continuing into 2027. The situation has become particularly difficult for a team that entered the season hoping to challenge the benchmark set by the W17, while Lewis Hamilton has already acknowledged how Ferrari’s championship prospects are fading as the campaign progresses.
Flavio Briatore believes Formula 1 benefits from a winning Ferrari
Asked by Corriere della Sera for his assessment of Ferrari, Briatore acknowledged that the Italian team remains competitive but suggested it repeatedly falls short of finding the final ingredient required to convert that pace into a championship. He also stressed that winning a Formula 1 title is inherently difficult because Ferrari is competing against other major teams capable of delivering at the same level.
Briatore has extensive experience of championship campaigns, having worked with drivers including Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso. However, he resisted offering Ferrari a simple prescription for solving its current problems. In his view, any effective solution would first require a detailed understanding of the underlying issues before attempting to intervene.
What he did make clear was his support for Ferrari succeeding again. Briatore argued that a victorious Scuderia represents an asset for the entire championship and suggested that the wider Formula 1 community naturally wants to see the Prancing Horse competing successfully at the front.
Briatore backs Fred Vasseur despite Ferrari mistakes
That support also extended to team principal Fred Vasseur. Briatore maintained that Vasseur’s work deserves respect and pointed out that mistakes occur at every Formula 1 team rather than being unique to Ferrari.
Vasseur has faced increased scrutiny during the second half of the 2026 season, with Ferrari’s management of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc becoming another area of attention. Briatore has separately discussed the difficulty of controlling two leading drivers, describing the pair as challenging to manage and arguing that the interests of the team must remain above those of either individual. His wider comments on the Hamilton-Leclerc relationship and Ferrari driver management underline how closely he is following developments at Maranello.
The post-summer-break period has added to that pressure. Hamilton was unhappy with Ferrari’s pit-wall management at Zandvoort, while tensions intensified at Monza when the British driver and Charles Leclerc came together at Turn 1. Ferrari’s disappointing performance in front of the Tifosi only increased attention on Vasseur and speculation over his future.
Flavio Briatore rules out taking over at Ferrari
Despite his fascination with the Scuderia, Briatore does not see himself becoming the man to replace Vasseur. When asked whether he would consider taking charge at Maranello, the 76-year-old indicated that such a move had come too late in his career.
He nevertheless described Ferrari as an enormously attractive proposition, while explaining that he had never previously come close to joining the team because his Formula 1 career had always placed him on the opposite side of the competitive divide.
His position therefore differs from other names that have surfaced around Ferrari. Reports have identified Ferrari WEC team principal Antonello Coletta as a potential alternative should a change eventually be made, while Christian Horner has also been linked with Maranello. The former Red Bull boss has now gone further by publicly opening the door to a possible Ferrari role.
Ferrari’s title drought remains the bigger concern
For Briatore, however, the central issue is less about identifying one individual who could transform Ferrari and more about the difficulty of building a complete championship-winning organisation. His assessment was that the team already possesses competitive foundations, but repeatedly fails to assemble every element required over an entire season.
That is what makes Ferrari’s continuing drought significant beyond Maranello. The Tifosi have endured repeated seasons in which early optimism has eventually been overcome by a stronger rival, and 2026 increasingly appears to be following that pattern as Mercedes moves closer to the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships.
Briatore may be working for a competing constructor, but his conclusion is that Ferrari returning to the summit would strengthen Formula 1 itself. For a team whose identity is inseparable from the championship, the challenge remains turning that widespread desire into the sustained performance required to finally end the wait.
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