Flavio Briatore says he was "furious" when he realised just a few months ago just how far Formula 1’s Enstone based team had fallen.
The 74-year-old Italian guided the team to world championship glory no less than four times - twice with Michael Schumacher as Benetton in the mid-90s, and again with back-to-back glory with Fernando Alonso at the wheel of the works Renault a decade later.
"Formula 1 has changed in quantitative terms compared to the past," Briatore, recently installed as a powerful F1 advisor to Renault CEO Luca de Meo, told La Gazzetta dello Sport in Baku.
"In terms of numbers, costs, number of races, yes. The public has changed, the perception in the United States has changed, and they are very important things. But the dynamics within the teams is more or less still the same.
"And when I arrived at Alpine, many things made me furious," he admits. "There was neither presence of mind nor motivation.
"Now I’m here I will keep everyone on their toes, even if it’s impossible to do worse than this. We are in the process of restructuring," said Briatore, who was instrumental in selecting 36-year-old Oliver Oakes, known for leading the Hitech F2 team, to be the new Alpine team boss.
Briatore has denied that he was behind the decision to probably scrap Renault’s F1 engine program to save costs, but he emphasised: "I have always won world championships with 30 percent less budget than the competition and I have not forgotten the magic formula."
2024 so far has been miserable for drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon - the latter to depart to Haas for 2025. Carlos Sainz turned down Briatore’s offer to replace Ocon, so the job of being Gasly’s 2025 teammate falls to Australian rookie Jack Doohan.
"We already have good, fast drivers," Briatore admits. "The problem is the car."
As for Doohan, he insisted: "I don’t buy drivers - I’ve always raised them at home. I launched Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, not exactly two duds," Briatore smiled.
"I think and hope Doohan can give us guarantees in 2025. I tried to hire both Carlos Sainz and Adrian Newey but our discussions didn’t go well, but I’m focusing more on teamwork.
"One evening I went down to the workshop and there were 70-80 people working," said the flamboyant Italian. "Until recently, that would not have happened."
Briatore was speaking in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. He reiterates that it was his original initiative to take Formula 1 to the historic city.
"I was the one who promoted Azerbaijan in F1," he said. "About ten years ago, I spoke about it with the president, Ilham Aliyev, who wanted to put the country on the map.
"Back then, nobody knew anything about it, now it’s sold out, with spectators coming from half the world. Now I’ve put my headphones back on to hear the guys in the garage and I’m ready to make Alpine great again."