Flavio Briatore

Explore about the Famous Entrepreneur Flavio Briatore, who was born in Italy on April 12, 1950. Analyze Flavio Briatore’s net worth, age, bio, birthday, dating, height-weight, wiki. Investigate who is Flavio Briatore dating now? Look into this article to know how old is Flavio Briatore?

Flavio Briatore Biography

Italian businessman best known for his involvement in the Benetton fashion brand and as manager of the Benetton Formula One racing team.

He worked as a ski instructor.

He was released from the ING Renault F1 racing team due to his role in race fixing at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

He dated supermodel Heidi Klum and they had a daughter together named Helene. He married Elisabetta Gregoraci in 2008.

He was part owner of the Queens Park Rangers soccer team, where Kevin Gallen was once a striker.

Flavio Briatore (Italian: [ˈflaːvjo bri.aˈtoːre] ; born 12 April 1950) is an Italian businessman. He started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy. Briatore was convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s, receiving two prison sentences, though the convictions were later extinguished by an amnesty. Briatore set up a number of successful Benetton franchises as a fugitive in the Virgin Islands and the United States. In 1990, he was promoted by Luciano Benetton to manage the Benetton Formula One racing team, which became Renault F1 in 2002. From 2007 to 2010, he was part-owner and chairman of London’s Queens Park Rangers F.C. On 16 September 2009, Briatore was forced to resign from the ING Renault F1 team due to his involvement in race fixing at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. After the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) conducted its own investigation, Briatore was banned indefinitely from any events sanctioned by the FIA, although this ban was later overturned by a French Tribunal de Grande Instance.

During Briatore’s fugitive status, he maintained close relations with Benetton and opened some Benetton stores in the Virgin Islands. When Benetton opened his first five stores in the United States in 1979, he appointed Briatore as director of the group’s American operations. Thanks to Benetton’s methods of franchising, the chain experienced a brief boom in popularity in the US, where, by 1989, there were 800 Benetton stores. Briatore, having taken a cut of each franchising agreement, became very wealthy. As store owners began to complain of competition from other Benetton stores, the number of stores decreased to 200 and Briatore began to look for a new business. In 1999, the Corriere della Sera wrongfully reported that he had been arrested in Nairobi on suspicion of fraud relating to real estate in Kenya, but further to a libel claim brought by Briatore against the newspaper, this allegation proved to be untrue and Briatore was compensated.

Then he worked as a door-to-door insurance salesman. In the 1970s, he moved to Cuneo and became an assistant to businessman Attilio Dutto, owner of the Paramatti Vernici paint company. Dutto was killed on 21 March 1979 in a car bomb attack by an unknown perpetrator.

He was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in the 1980s, receiving two prison sentences. In 1984, a court in Bergamo found Briatore guilty of various counts of fraud and he was fined and sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison. The sentence was subsequently reduced to 1 year by a court of appeal in 1988. In 1986, in Milan, Briatore was sentenced to 3 years for fraud and conspiracy for his role in a team of confidence tricksters who, over a number of years, set up rigged gambling games using fake playing cards. The judges described these as elaborate confidence tricks, in which victims were invited to dinner and then “ensnared” in rigged games that involved a cast of fictional characters and realised enormous profits for their perpetrators. After an appeal in 1987, the sentence was reduced to 1 year and 2 months. To avoid imprisonment, Briatore lived as a fugitive in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands. He never went to prison and returned to the EU after both convictions were extinguished by amnesty. In 2010, a Turin court ordered Briatore rehabilitated, which by Italian Criminal Code results in the extinction “of any criminal effect of the conviction”

Briatore attended his first Formula One race, the Australian Grand Prix, in 1988, having in the past proclaimed his lack of interest in the sport. Luciano Benetton appointed him commercial director of his Formula One team, Benetton Formula Ltd. (formerly Toleman), and when he fired the team management shortly thereafter, Briatore was promoted to managing director and set about turning Benetton into a competitive team.

He hired and quickly fired engineer John Barnard and lured young driver Michael Schumacher from the Jordan team after his first F1 race in 1991. The Times observed that Briatore knew Schumacher could be the best and built a team around him at Benetton Schumacher went on to win at Spa in 1992 and again at Estoril in 1993 before claiming the World Drivers’ Championship in 1994 and 1995. The Benetton team won the World Constructors’ Championship in 1995.

Briatore has always spoken out about his desires to see F1 provide better entertainment. In 1994, he said: “All the team owners are orientated towards the technical side rather than the entertainment side, and this is a big fault. Every meeting that I go to, people are talking about pistons and suspensions. Nobody goes to a race to see that kind of thing… People come to see Schumacher and Senna racing each other.”

Late in 1994, Briatore purchased the ailing Ligier team thereby acquiring its Renault engine supply. He passed operational management of Ligier to Tom Walkinshaw and took on complete management of Benetton. When Schumacher and a number of key technical staffers departed for Ferrari in 1996, the Benetton team slipped to the middle of the grid.

During the 1994 season, Briatore’s Benetton team came under allegations of cheating, resulting in fines and a two-race ban for Schumacher.

In a 1996 interview with Elle magazine, Briatore said, “When I go to my local and see the men in there, I think: There but for the grace of God go I. I see men locked to their mortgages, their cars, their jobs. These guys are stamped on, they’re caged. The local paper, watching soaps on the telly, taking the dog for a walk … it’s great for three days, but then I get panicky. I miss life in the fast lane.”

Briatore purchased a share of the Minardi team in 1996, but after failing to sell it to British American Tobacco as he had hoped, he sold out to fellow owners Giancarlo Minardi and Gabriele Rumi. In 1997, Benetton replaced Briatore with David Richards.

In 1998, he became engaged to supermodel Naomi Campbell; they were involved in an on-again-off-again relationship until their separation in 2003. Campbell now considers Briatore her “mentor”.

He created the Billionaire nightclub [it] brand in 1998 and owns a club in Sardinia; in August 2012 he opened another Billionaire club in Marbella under that name along with an haute couture line, Billionaire Italian Couture. In addition to that, he opened Cipriani’s restaurant in Mayfair, London, in 2004 and until 2007 owned 48.9% of the pharmaceuticals company Pierrel [it] . He also operates a Tuscan beach club and Lion in the Sun, a holiday resort in Kenya.

From 1998 to 2000, he led the company Supertec, supplying Mecachrome-built Renault engines to Williams and BAR in 1999, Arrows in 2000, and under the brand name “Playlife” for Benetton in both 1999 and 2000.

Briatore has a reputation as a talent-scout and probably his greatest ‘find’ has been Fernando Alonso. Briatore met with the teenage Spaniard in 1999. As his manager, Briatore secured him a race drive with Minardi in 2001 and promoted him to test-driver for Renault in 2002.

In 2000, Renault announced its plans to return to Formula One with the purchase of the Benetton Formula team. Briatore returned as managing director and team principal, replacing Rocco Benetton. The team raced as Benetton-Renault in 2001 before becoming Renault F1 in 2002.

In March 2003, Briatore began dating supermodel Heidi Klum. In December she announced her pregnancy. Soon after, the two split and Klum began dating the musician Seal. Klum gave birth to Helene (Leni) Klum in May 2004 in New York City. According to Klum, Briatore is not involved in Leni’s life; she has stated emphatically that “Seal is Leni’s father”. In 2009 Briatore allowed Seal to adopt his daughter and change her name to Helene Samuel.

For 2003 Briatore fired race-driver Jenson Button and replaced him with Alonso. When he replaced Button the outcry was huge but Briatore stated, “time will tell if I am wrong”.

Briatore also acted as manager for Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Heikki Kovalainen. Despite winning the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix, Trulli was dropped from Renault by Briatore and replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella.

With Alonso, Renault won both the driver’s and constructor’s championships in 2005 and 2006. However, Alonso turned his back on Briatore to sign for rivals McLaren for 2007.

In April 2006, Renault F1’s new president Alain Dassas stated that having a contract with Briatore for 2007 was ‘a key factor’ in securing the company’s commitment to the sport, “and we will do everything to ensure Flavio stays”. Briatore was duly confirmed on 6 September 2006 as staying at Renault for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

In December 2007, Briatore and Ecclestone were joined as co-owners of QPR by multi-billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, who bought 20% of the club.

In 2007 Briatore was linked to a takeover of English Championship football club Queens Park Rangers (QPR) from a Monaco-based consortium led by Gianni Paladini. On 1 September 2007 it was officially announced that Briatore (along with Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal) had bought the club. On 7 November 2007, Briatore completed his takeover of QPR together with Ecclestone. He served as the club’s chairman.

In 2007, he even went so far as to suggest that Grands Prix be split into two separate races as in the GP2 series.

Allegations were made during November 2007 by the FIA against the Renault F1 team regarding information they were found to have in their possession concerning the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars. These allegations were the subject of an FIA investigation, with an FIA hearing taking place on 6 December 2007. Renault were found guilty of breaching the same regulation as McLaren (see F1 espionage scandal), but were not punished. Despite this guilty verdict, Briatore hit back at McLaren’s Ron Dennis, saying “here is a team that acquired an advantage illegally. Just read the regulations: for intellectual property theft the punishment is exclusion… Ron Dennis… was the one who protested us on the mass damper. He is not the immaculate saint he pretends to be on his statements”.

Briatore replaced Alonso with Kovalainen for 2007, saying “with Kovalainen, I hope to find the anti-Alonso”.

Briatore replaced Alonso with Kovalainen for 2007, saying “with Kovalainen, I hope to find the anti-Alonso”.

The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. It also wishes to state that its managing director, Flavio Briatore and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team.

Briatore resigned as team principal of Renault due to a race fixing scandal. The controversy centred on an early crash involving Nelson Piquet, Jr.’s car during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix of 28 September 2008, when he was still driving for Renault. At the time, Piquet Jr. described the crash as a simple mistake; however, shortly after his acrimonious departure from Renault and criticism of Briatore nearly a year later in August 2009, allegations surfaced that he had deliberately crashed to help Renault teammate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race. After a Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) investigation, on 4 September 2009 Renault were charged with conspiracy and race fixing, and were due to face the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 21 September 2009. In return for immunity from punishment, Piquet Jr. had reportedly stated to the FIA that he had been asked to crash by Briatore and Renault chief engineer Pat Symonds. On 11 September, following leaks of Piquet Jr.’s evidence, Renault and Briatore stated they would take legal action against Piquet, Jr. for making false allegations. However, five days later, Renault announced they would not contest the charges and that Briatore and Symonds had left the team. The day after the Renault announcement, Renault confirmed Briatore had resigned from the team, while Briatore himself stated of his departure that “I was just trying to save the team”, “It’s my duty. That’s the reason I’ve finished.” The team issued the following official statement:

Following Briatore’s ban from FIA, the Football League requested that FIA provide details of its investigation. The Football League could force Briatore out of QPR under rules that stipulate a club owner must be a “fit and proper person”. The Football League also has the power to ban owners who have been banned from another sporting organisation. The Football League board discussed the matter on 8 October 2009 and declared that they would be awaiting a response from Briatore to various questions before commenting further. It was announced that he had stepped down from the post effective 19 February 2010.

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