Michael Schumacher 'lying on a bed' – Briatore

Jun.2 (GMM) Flavio Briatore has hinted that F1 legend Michael Schumacher’s days are now limited to “lying on a bed”.

A few days ago, Briatore – who was boss at Benetton (later Renault and Alpine) when Schumacher won his first two titles back to back – admitted that he had deliberately not tried to visit the seven time world champion since his brain injuries.

“If I close my eyes,” he now expands in conversation with Corriere della Sera, “I see him smiling after a victory.

“I prefer to remember him like that rather than him just lying on a bed. Corinna and I talk often, though.”

Briatore, now 75, returned to Formula 1 last year as Alpine’s executive advisor. Because he is not directly employed by the team or Renault, however, he is not officially team boss – although he appeared as ‘team representative’ in the FIA press conference in Barcelona last Friday.

The Italian was absent from the paddock for years amid a lifelong ban for orchestrating Nelson Piquet junior’s deliberate Singapore GP crash in 2008 that enabled Fernando Alonso to win the race.

“I have to say thank you to Stefano Domenicali, who allowed me to return to Formula 1,” Briatore told the Italian newspaper.

Corriere della Sera asked Briatore if Schumacher or Alonso can be considered the greatest F1 driver of all time.

“I don’t know who the greatest is, because we’ve had Schumacher, Senna, Alonso,” he answered. “Now, the number one is definitely (Max) Verstappen.

“I have two cars at Alpine, so I would like to have two Verstappens.”