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Flavio, Michael and Benetton

28. Jul 2023 
by Ziv Knoll
4348 views

Flavio Briatore, born 12 April 1950, is an Italian businessman and former team manager. He started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy, but was soon convicted on several fraud charges in the 1980s, receiving two prison sentences, though the convictions were later nullified by an amnesty.

Picture above: Flavio Briatore, here with Michael Schumacher in 1995, was Benetton’s team manager when the German conquered the Formula One Drivers’ Championship in 1994 and 1995. The 1994 title, was very controversial, to say the least, because of strong suspicions of technical cheating, and the collision of Schumacher and Hill, that eliminated the latter, during the last and decisive race of the season in Adelaide.

Briatore then set up a number of successful Benetton franchises in the Virgin Islands and the United States. In 1990, despite his initial lack of interest for motor racing, he was promoted by Luciano Benetton to manage the Benetton Formula One team, which became Renault F1 in 2002.

Michael Schumacher joined Benetton following his 1991 Belgian Grand Prix debut at Spa, where he had so much impressed. He won his first F1 race, exactly one year after his debut, at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, his favourite track. In 4 seasons for the Benetton team, with Flavio Briatore at the helm, Schumacher took 19 Grand Prix wins, 10 pole positions and 23 podium finishes.

 

Source: DR

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