Departing Alpine boss denies Flavio Briatore relationship issue in ‘different approach’ verdict

Bruno Famin chats with Flavio Briatore at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Bruno Famin has refuted the suggestion that he and Flavio Briatore weren’t getting along at Alpine, but admits he and the Italian have a differing approach.

Famin had been in charge of Alpine for the past 12 months, having succeeded Otmar Szafnauer following his departure, but will now make way for new team boss Oliver Oakes.

Bruno Famin: I haven’t had any problem with Flavio Briatore

Famin’s tenure as team boss had been called into question in recent weeks, following changes being made by Groupe Renault CEO Luca de Meo which saw the return of former Benetton/Renault team boss Flavio Briatore.

Briatore, who delivered the Enstone team its drivers’ titles in 1994 and 1995 with Michael Schumacher and, later, with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and ’06, was ostensibly not brought in to undermine Famin’s authority but, with major changes going on in the structure of the team and its relationship with the power unit factory of Renault at Viry-Chatillon, Famin will step back from F1 in order to head up the proposed transformation of Viry from an F1 power unit factory into a technology centre for the broader Renault Group.

Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast following the news, Famin said his own personal circumstances pale into insignificance in light of the news affecting Viry and the likely change of Alpine into a customer engine team from 2026.

“The major event of the week is not my position or the team principal position at Alpine, it is the potential change of power unit – this one has a real huge impact on hundreds of people and even on the nature of the project because we see that there are different models now in how the manufacturers are involved in Formula 1,” he said.

“We see it with Ford, with Audi and yeah, we can think about changing the model but the impact on the people, on the staff, is huge. That’s really the most important topic.

“My personal case is not a big issue, to be frank.”

While it might be easy to assume he and Briatore hadn’t gelled as the 74-year-old came into the fold with the intent of making recommendations to De Meo, Famin said it was the opposite – but admitted he and Briatore have different approaches to management.

“There are two things, mainly, the first one is, for several weeks, we’ve had Flavio Briatore as executive advisor to the CEO, he has his own way and his own goal – everything,” he said.

“In the few weeks I have worked with him, I haven’t got any major problem, any problem at all, even.

“But I don’t think we have really the same approach and it will be clearer for everybody, internally and externally, if we clarify the governance of the team.”

More on Alpine and Flavio Briatore

Explained: Who is Oliver Oakes, the rookie F1 boss Alpine has entrusted its future to?

Why has Alpine turned to its controversial past to try improving its future?

With transformation in the air at Viry, a move that has been greeted with dismay by the employees, Famin said it was important for someone to take charge of those changes.

“The second point is that, in Viry, if it’s confirmed we will have a huge transformation plan of the company putting more resources on managing the other motorsport programme but also developing those new activities in the high technology, then I think it’s not an easy thing for all the staff there and we need somebody to be fully dedicated to that project and I’m quite happy to be dedicated to that,” he said.

“Both together, I think the decision was quite easy to take and I have no problem with it. I’m very happy to have been a team principal in Formula 1 for a year and I am not unhappy to leave.”

With Alpine trying to bounce back from its disastrous start to the season, in which the team began the year at the back of the grid, Famin said it had been made very clear to the team that he and Renault needed to make big changes in how the Enstone squad went racing.

“It was a shock for everyone – for me as well, of course,” he said.

“But, on other hand, it was highlighting the necessity of the changes we had already started and we needed to do.

“Since I’ve been in charge, we’ve changed quite a lot of things – what we have seen at the start of the season was the result of what has been done before and then, somehow, even if it was, again, a shock, it was a confirmation that we had to change.

“Since, we’ve changed quite a lot of things, things are getting better. And on that, the important thing then from that difficult situation, we saw that it was really necessary to change quite heavily the team structure and that is what we have done.”

Read Next: What impact might new Audi F1 chief Mattia Binotto have on F1 2025 driver market?