The thoughts of Flavio

In recent Q&A Session, Flavio Briatore talked about his vision for the future of F1. To me, it makes so much sense and I can't believe why there is all the fuss about the regulations for 2008.

I really thought the point he made that at a GP weekend, the GP2 cars are only six or seven seconds slower than an F1 car, but cost less than a hundredth to run. When F1 started back in 1950, there were regularly cars that were 20 seconds off the pace. And nobody complained. It was still great. And having established that competetive race cars can be built at reasonable prices, isn't it sensible to do it? I know GP2 is a one-make series, but it must be possible to use the cars as a basis for design, and allow F1 teams to make more changes than is currently allowed. It would be more expensive than GP2, but perhaps by a factor of ten rather than 100-200.

A few years back, I used to think that Flavio was as mad as a bucket of frogs. But he's won championships with both Benetton and Renault in different decades, so he clearly is doing a great job. And he clearly has sensible ideas about cutting costs. Obviously there are team owners with their own political agendas, but the FIA needs to rise above that, instead of introducing further political issues.

In a recent interview for a friend's travel blog, flyaway cafe, I said that if I had to choose someone to sit next to on a transatlantic flight, it would be Max Mosley. But of the team owners, I'm sure that Flavio would be someone you could learn a lot from in a short time.