Age, Biography, and Wiki
Flavio Briatore was born on April 12, 1950, in Verzuolo, Italy, to parents who were elementary school teachers. He initially struggled academically but eventually found success in business. Briatore's career spans multiple industries, including Formula One and fashion, where he was influential in the early days of the Benetton brand.
| Occupation | Fraudsters |
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| Date of Birth | 12 April 1950 |
| Age | 75 Years |
| Birth Place | Verzuolo, Italy |
| Horoscope | Aries |
| Country | Italy |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There is no publicly available information on Flavio Briatore's height or weight.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Briatore is known for his high-profile relationships, particularly with supermodels. He has been linked to Elisabetta Gregoraci, with whom he has a son, Falco Nathan Briatore. Additionally, he is the father of Heidi Klum's daughter, Leni Olumi Klum.
His parents were school teachers. After twice failing public (state) school, he attended Fassino di Busca, a private (independent) school, receiving a diploma with the lowest grades in Land Surveying.
Although the French court ruling made Briatore eligible to return to Formula One in theory, he said that he did not expect to work in F1 again. He spent fifteen years on the sidelines of the sport. However, he remained associated with the sport, particularly through his close relationship with Fernando Alonso.
In 1998, Briatore became engaged to supermodel Naomi Campbell; they were involved in an on-again-off-again relationship until their separation in 2003. Campbell now considers him her "mentor".
In March 2003, Briatore began dating supermodel Heidi Klum. In December, she announced her pregnancy. Soon after, the two split and Klum began dating the musician Seal. Klum gave birth to Leni Klum in New York City in May 2004. According to Klum, Briatore is not involved in Leni's life; she has stated emphatically that "Seal is Leni's father". In 2009, Briatore allowed Seal to adopt his daughter and change her name.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Elisabetta Gregoraci (m. 2008-2017) |
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Net Worth and Salary
Flavio Briatore's net worth varies by source, with estimates ranging from $150 million to $400 million. His wealth is derived from his roles in Formula One and as a former part-owner of Queens Park Rangers F.C., as well as his involvement with the Benetton fashion brand.
In 1999, the Corriere della Sera reported that Briatore had been arrested in Nairobi on suspicion of fraud relating to real estate in Kenya. Briatore successfully sued the newspaper for libel and received compensation.
Briatore sold his Benetton shares and invested the proceeds in Supertec, which he led from to. Supertec was formed in the wake of Renault's departure from Formula One to supply the old Renault engines (built by Mecachrome) to F1 teams, including Benetton itself (1999 & 2000 as "Playlife"), Williams and BAR in 1999, and Arrows in 2000. Briatore forced Benetton to pay £17m/year to keep Renault power.
Briatore sued the FIA in French courts over the unprecedented penalty, demanding his reinstatement and €1 million in compensation. On 5 January 2010, the Tribunal de Grande Instance overturned the bans on Briatore and Symonds and granted them €20,000 in compensation, €15,000 of which went to Briatore. The tribunal said that the FIA lacked authority to ban other F1 figures from working with Briatore and Symonds. It also questioned the quality of the FIA's evidence and suggested that the FIA had not given Briatore due process, as the ban was imposed by a council led by FIA president Max Mosley, whose animosity towards Briatore "was well known." The FIA announced that it would appeal the decision, but the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement the following April.
Career, Business and Investments
Briatore's career is marked by his impact on Formula One, where he managed teams like Benetton and Renault. He was also involved in the scandal surrounding the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, which led to his resignation from Renault F1. Beyond sports, Briatore has invested in real estate and luxury assets, including a private jet and a yacht named Force Blue.
Briatore started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy. He was convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s, receiving two prison sentences, though the convictions were later extinguished by an amnesty. He spent several years as a fugitive in the Virgin Islands and the United States, where he set up several United Colors of Benetton franchises, paving the way for his role at Benetton's F1 team. From 2007 to 2011, he was part-owner and chairman of English association football team Queens Park Rangers.
In the 1970s, Briatore moved to Cuneo and became an assistant to businessman Attilio Dutto, owner of the Paramatti Vernici paint company. Dutto was killed on 21 March 1979 in a car bomb attack by an unknown perpetrator. Briatore then moved to Milan and worked for Finanziaria Generale Italia at the Italian stock exchange.
While working in Milan, Briatore met Luciano Benetton, founder of the Benetton clothing company. When Benetton expanded to the United States in 1979, he appointed Briatore to lead the group's American operations.
Under Briatore's leadership, "the rebel F1 team became a part of the establishment" and won three world championships. However, he also angered members of the Formula One establishment, and vocally opposed the upward trend of costs in Formula One. In he used his leverage to force the then-dominant Williams team to agree to limits on engine changes and qualifying procedures. Williams had blown a deadline to file its entry paperwork for the 1993 season, and Briatore (all team principals had a veto) refused to let Williams compete in 1993 until Frank Williams "listen[ed] to [him]" on costs. The move was deemed "grossly unsporting" at the time, but Briatore's position ultimately won out. Led by Alain Prost, Williams won a double world championship that year.
Briatore also aggressively brainstormed ideas to improve the level of competition in Formula One, including starting races in reverse grid position after qualifying and sending out a pace car to artificially restrain front-runners who were more than 12 seconds in front.
Briatore's skills lay primarily on the commercial side of the sport, and he reportedly "revelled in his technical ignorance of F1" from day one. Even so, he built a "super team" of talented engineers at Benetton. He started by hiring celebrated chassis designer John Barnard, but existing designers Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds disliked working with Barnard. In 1990, Byrne, Symonds, and 11 other engineers quit en masse to join the abortive Adrian Reynard F1 project. To Symonds' surprise, Briatore stayed on good terms with him and Byrne, and convinced them to return at the end of the season; Barnard was fired. Briatore also hired Tom Walkinshaw and Ross Brawn. In 1992, the team moved to a new facility at Enstone, Oxfordshire, where it remains to this day.
Following Schumacher's 1994 title season, Ferrari's Umberto Agnelli offered Briatore a job at the Scuderia, but Briatore declined, citing his ownership stake in Benetton. Instead, Briatore upgraded Benetton further by buying the Ligier team—one of the only Formula One teams with a contract for the dominant Renault engines—and transferring its Renault contract to Benetton. With Renault power, Benetton won the 1995 Constructors' Championship. Byrne and Symonds claimed that their 1995 victory vindicated them after the accusations of 1994.
In April 2006, Renault F1's new president Alain Dassas stated that having a contract with Briatore for 2007 was 'a key factor' in securing the company's commitment to the sport, "and we will do everything to ensure Flavio stays". Briatore was duly confirmed on 6 September 2006 as staying at Renault for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
In May 2024, Briatore returned to Enstone and Renault (now competing as the Alpine F1 Team). He was given the title of Executive Advisor for the Formula One Division. Although he was employed by the parent Renault company and not the official Alpine team, Motor Sport reported that Briatore had "effectively been given full scope for hirings and firings within the team." Car magazine interpreted his role as "team boss in all but name."
Upon returning to Renault/Alpine, Briatore aggressively cut expenses, reducing headcount at Alpine's Enstone facility by 25% and shuttering Renault's Viry-Châtillon engine operation in favor of a customer engine supply from Mercedes. Briatore attributed the engine decision to Renault senior management, saying that the decision was made before he joined the team, and that "whatever our chairman decides [is] fine." Several media outlets suggested that Renault CEO Luca de Meo had given Briatore a mandate to make the team more attractive to a potential buyer, but Briatore denied the accusation.
He created the Billionaire nightclub brand in 1998 and owns a club in Sardinia; in August 2012, he opened another Billionaire club in Marbella under that name along with an haute couture line, Billionaire Italian Couture. In addition to that, he opened Cipriani's restaurant in Mayfair, London, in 2004 and until 2007 owned 48.9% of the pharmaceuticals company Pierrel. He also operates a Tuscan beach club and Lion in the Sun, a holiday resort in Kenya.
Briatore is a beneficiary of Autumn Sailing Ltd, which purchased the super yacht Force Blue from Home Shopping Network investor Roy Speer for £68.2m. She was given a refitted interior designed by Celeste dell'Anna and a blue exterior. The yacht was then chartered by a number of individuals including Briatore, who named it as the most extravagant present he had ever bought himself. In 2010, the yacht was seized by officers investigating a tax fraud over its charter status and VAT on fuel. The Italian Supreme Court ruled that there were no issues with the seizure, though the yacht itself was released
Social Network
Briatore is active on social media platforms like Instagram, where he shares glimpses of his personal life and business ventures.
The Ligier-Benetton partnership was brief but occasionally successful. Briatore hoped to turn Ligier into Benetton's B-team, reasoning that the two teams could pool costs, share parts, and save money. He stripped Ligier of its Renault engines but transferred several Benetton personnel to the French team, including Tom Walkinshaw and Frank Dernie. When Ligier unveiled its 1995 car, the racing press mocked it as a copy of Benetton's. Benetton aerodynamicist Willem Toet accused his own team of violating Formula One's information sharing rules and later said that it was one of the reasons why he left for Ferrari, but Dernie defended his actions, arguing that Williams and McLaren had also copied Benetton's chassis.
Briatore also purchased a share of the Minardi team in, but after failing to sell it to British American Tobacco as he had hoped, he sold out to fellow owners Giancarlo Minardi and Gabriele Rumi.
Following Briatore's ban from FIA, the Football League requested that FIA provide details of its investigation. The Football League could force Briatore out of QPR under rules that stipulate a club owner must be a "fit and proper person". The Football League also has the power to ban owners who have been banned from another sporting organisation. The Football League board discussed the matter on 8 October 2009 and declared that they would be awaiting a response from Briatore to various questions before commenting further. It was announced that he had stepped down from the post, effective from 19 February 2010.
Education
Briatore attended Fassino di Busca, a private school, after struggling in public school. His education background includes studying land surveying.
With a career spanning decades and a reputation as a formidable businessman, Flavio Briatore continues to be a figure of interest in both the sports and fashion worlds. His personal life and business ventures remain a subject of public fascination.
