“Sergio Perez’s penalty? If I had been in Ferrari, yesterday I would have smashed the computer.” These are the words of Flavio Briatore, former Formula 1 team manager, in an interview for La Presse, the French-language digital newspaper published daily in Montreal, regarding the decisions taken by the FIA on the penalty for the winner of the Singapore Grand Prix, Sergio Perez:
“Everyone has their own management system – he adds -. What I can say is what F1 did yesterday is not good for the sport and entertainment. There was also the podium, let’s say there hadn’t been more than five seconds between the first two drivers: we would have seen Ferrari win after two hours. Such a thing should not happen. Was it easier for the FIA to decide given Charles Leclerc’s gap of more than seven seconds behind Sergio Perez? Absolutely, but if they decided immediately maybe Charles Leclerc would have made a different race.” – Flavio Briatore pointed out, hinting that the Ferrari driver would have been able to manage the gap behind Red Bull, instead of pushing to attempt an overtake on the track, which led to high tyre wear.
When asked about the future of Ferrari, the Italian businessman added: “We hope that next Ferrari will be able to take a step similar to the one made this season. If they do, they will fight for the world championship.” – he added.
“Max Verstappen? This year he absolutely deserves the title” – Flavio Briatore continued, before sharing his thoughts on the budget cap topic: “To lower costs you have to act according to the regulations. For example, the floor of a car and the gearbox must be the same for everyone. Then, in this way, costs are lowered, but it becomes difficult to control how teams spend their budget”.
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Flavio Briatore concluded with some comments about the FIA: “There are people who are not doing their job appropriately. At every race we have a problem, even yesterday it was the same. It’s not F1’s fault but the FIA’s, they absolutely have to change their approach. You can ruin a race, the show and affect the world championship. Almost 200 employees and companies of this type must be managed by capable managers and every sector must have them. At the moment there is no such quality. The FIA must be managed by professionals, this is fundamental. The president must decide. The sport needs a federation that is capable of managing F1. Why didn’t it happen before? Because there were professionals, it’s simple as that.” – the managing director of Benetton and Renault concluded.
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