Flavio Briatore called Christian Horner ‘completely mad’ for refusing to sign one F1 world champion

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Flavio Briatore once butted heads with Christian Horner after the former Red Bull boss refused to sign one F1 world champion for reportedly causing too much ‘chaos’ at his previous teams.

Daniel Ricciardo’s decision to depart from the Red Bull Racing F1 outfit at the end of the 2018 season sparked a huge debate over who Christian Horner would choose to fill the Australian’s void.

A multitude of candidates were tipped, one of them being two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who, at the time, was deciding whether to take a sabbatical from F1 or continue to drive for McLaren in 2019.

However, Horner quickly shot down any chance of Alonso racing for the Austrian constructor, saying in a 2018 episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast, “I’ve got huge respect for Fernando. He’s a great driver, a fantastic driver. But I think it would be very difficult to see.

“He’s tended to cause a bit of chaos wherever he’s gone. I’m not sure that it would be the healthiest thing for the team, for Fernando to join the team.”

• READ MORE: Flavio Briatore says one Formula 1 driver used to be a ‘phenomenon’ like Max Verstappen

Flavio Briatore called Christian Horner ‘completely mad’ for his Fernando Alonso verdict

During a 2018 appearance on Nico Rosberg’s Beyond Victory podcast, Flavio Briatore touched upon Horner’s assessment of Alonso as he explained how unproblematic it is to have the Spaniard in your F1 team.

Briatore hired Alonso as the reserve driver for Renault following his rookie campaign with Minardi in 2001. After spending a season on the sidelines in 2002, he was given a full-time drive the following year.

The driver/team principal pairing won a total of 17 Grands Prix and two world championships together, and it has since proved to be the most successful period of Alonso’s career in F1.

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As such, he was not happy upon hearing that Horner had publicly bad-mouthed the Spaniard after being asked about his interest in Alonso’s services.

Briatore said, “People need to understand the character, what the driver wants, to make them always comfortable. Do your job, and we’ll take care of the rest. You don’t want to gossip, you don’t want any confrontations.

“You don’t want mechanics gossiping about this car is better, that car is not better, this engineer is better. I was there to cut anything disturbing the driver. Not only Fernando, but all drivers. I have zero problem with Fernando.

• READ MORE: Flavio Briatore hits out at the ‘rubbish’ way the F1 media talk about ‘rottweiler’ Fernando Alonso

“I have zero problem with Michael, especially with the press. This is your duty, this is the interview you need to do, go. With Fernando, I was the same. We have a super relationship, and we’re still talking once a week now. But we never had any problems.

“When I saw Christian Horner talking about Fernando dividing people, he’s completely mad, honestly. I mean, Christian, you saw what happened at Red Bull with him and the driver, Mark Webber?

“Fernando was, at the time, young but simple. He knew what the team was doing, the effort that the team was putting in, and we never had any kind of problems.”