The one certainty that Alpine gets from Briatore's F1 return

OPINION: Alpine’s appointment of Flavio Briatore may be controversial, but there is method to what some think is madness. That much was obvious in the Barcelona paddock during his first weekend back on centre stage

The last time I had seen Flavio Briatore in the paddock was at Imola. He was among the throng of guests who were being shuffled behind Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali as they made their way between motorhomes to a walkway on to the grid for the grand prix.

Almost anonymous among the crowd, with more attention being given to Hugh Grant just a few metres in front of him, he very much fell into the category of people who are semi-regular in the paddock but no longer on the ‘must talk to’ list. Sure, he kept close ties with Domenicali and FOM, and still works with Fernando Alonso, but he was certainly far from being one of the key paddock players that he once was.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.