Former head of Benetton and Renault, Flavio Briatore said that it was he who first suggested holding the race Formula 1 in Baku, which takes the inaugural stage in Azerbaijan this weekend.
"Without me, the Grand Prix in Baku would not take place, - said Briatore in an interview with Gazzetta della Sport. - Three years ago, I met with the President of Azerbaijan in Sardinia, and suggested: "Why not holding Formula 1 in your country?" He liked that idea.
Then he invited me to Baku. We flew in a helicopter over the city, and he showed me where to lay the track. I told him: "It looks fantastic."
After that I got in touch with Bernie Ecclestone, who then did not know where Azerbaijan is situated. Six months later, the contract was signed," he said.
Flavio Briatore is a famous Italian businessman, whose fortune is estimated at $ 150 million. He is known as a successful manager of Formula 1.
Previously, he worked in the restaurant business, and then played on the Stock Exchange and was the manager of the company Benetton in the US, and managed a network of clothing stores.
Since 1988, Briatore led the team Benetton in Formula 1. After the conflict with the Benetton family in the late '90s, Briatore left the company and founded his own one called Supertec, supplying the Renault engines for the Formula 1 team.
In 2001 Briatore returned to the leadership of the Benetton team and resigned with a scandal in September 2009, after the World Motor Sport Council disqualified Briatore for life for arranging Nelson Piquet’s crash in 2008. However, later in Paris the court quashed the lifetime ban for Briatore.
Briatore is a permanent figure in Italian tabloids because of his scandalous love stories with top models. He is known as the ex-lover of the model Naomi Campbell, with whom he subsequently broke up with a scandal. From another model, Heidi Klum, Flavio has a daughter. On June 18, 2008 Briatore married the Italian model Elizabeth Gregoracci.
In 2016, Briatore met Ilkin Mammadli in Baku and that abruptly changed his life. -0-
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