26/08/2009
NEWS STORY
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Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, who has long argued that F1 needs to put on a better show and entertain the fans, claims that the 2009 championship season has been distorted by the lack of a homogeneous set of rules.
When Briatore first came into F1 in the late 80s with Benetton, he was widely dismissed by many of those within the paddock as "the knitwear salesman", a dig at his time with the Italian clothing company.
In reality, following a spell at the Italian Stock Exchange, Briatore met up with Luciano Benetton, founder of the legendary company, and the two became good friends. Such was his marketing flair, Briatore was subsequently appointed director of Benetton's American operations and by 1989 the company had 800 stores in the United States.
In addition to amassing a small fortune, courtesy of the fact that he received a commission for every franchise sold, Briatore also played a key role in the controversial advertising campaigns that raised the company's profile. "We decided to do something very controversial that people would pick up on," he would later admit. "Fifty percent of people thought it was great and fifty percent thought it was awful, but in the meantime everyone was talking about Benetton."
Fact is, as he has demonstrated since, Briatore knows all about the value of brands and the value of marketing and is regarded with a lot more respect in the F1 paddock these days, with some citing him the obvious successor to Bernie Ecclestone.
Speaking to the German Press Agency DPA, the Italian says that F1 needs to think more about putting on a show that will have people glued to their TV sets than focussing on technical issues and politics.
"We have to make it more enticing, with more show, to think of the client, that is, the spectators," he said. "We have to improve everything, to plan differently, to get television and spectators more interested, to be more energetic, more vital.
"We have to talk about sport and not about politics," he continued. "We have to have three or four drivers fighting for the world championship."
Referring to the politics which have threatened to destroy the sport this year, with the teams threatening to head off and start their own series, he said: "People do not understand. They want to watch the races, the drivers, the stars, the cars that overtake each other. Like motorbikes, which have spectacular races. In Formula 1 things are more about what we say than about what we do."
And looking at the current season and the rules...
"Some had the KERS, others didn't. Some had the diffuser and others didn't. That is why this championship is a bit chaotic, distorted by all these things.
"Engineers had worked it out, so they said, and as usual nothing happened. We have spent a lot of money to know the opinion of these geniuses, and the result is the same as before That is why this championship is a bit chaotic, distorted by all these things."
Returning to his marketing roots, the Italian opines at to who should make up F1's target audience.
"We all have a car or two, and I think that the target must be from age 10 to 70. Boys, girls, men, women. There is a bit of everything in F1: danger, speed, stars, lifestyle. It is a show and it holds many things that make it something really special."
Briatore admits that he believes that the sport should "commercially seek out countries that hold more opportunities" and describes a return to the United States as "crucial".
Summing up what he sees as the sport's current failings, in terms of its audience, he says: "We have to hold exciting races, to change qualification, races, which are a bit long. We are preparing an important package for the future. We cannot go on as we are now, we have to improve. Getting worse would be hard."
Any chance the Italian might be persuaded to stand for the FIA Presidency?