Briatore will not return amid crisis

Apr.14 (GMM) Flavio Briatore doubts there would be buyers for teams who cannot make it through the coronavirus crisis.

Asked if he would consider returning to the paddock as a team owner, the former title-winning Renault boss said: “Why should I?

“I was successful and made a lot of money in Formula 1. Only if you want to lose money would you buy a team now,” he told Bild am Sonntag.

Williams – the slowest team in 2019 – is among those who have furloughed staff, and now the father of driver Nicholas Latifi is giving the team a loan that according to F1 business journalist Christian Sylt is secured on the team’s cars and factory.

Another small F1 team, Haas, may not receive such a lifeline. Team owner Gene Haas has been warning for some time that he might withdraw his support.

“Instead of spending hundreds of millions, he could just go to the Paddock Club,” team boss Gunther Steiner told motorsport-magazin.com.

Steiner said the big teams must therefore also think of the small teams when considering the next steps Formula 1 should take amid an existential crisis.

“We have to agree on something where it is possible for both the small and the large teams to race,” he said.

“Just participating, being three or four seconds slower and spending a lot of money, makes no sense. The most important thing for everyone now is to understand the situation we are in.”