Flavio Briatore has endured a lot of mudslinging because of his involvement in the 2008 Singapore GP. But now, he is back in Formula 1 and wants to shape the grid once again just like he did in the 1990s. During that time, Briatore became the Managing Director of the Benetton Formula team and he set about his journey to make it one of the top competitors. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher made an accidental debut in Jordan in 1991. The German had to substitute for Bertrand Gachot who went behind bars. Spotting Schumi’s talent, Briatore wanted him in Benetton.

However, the signing of Michael Schumacher at Benetton needed Flavio Briatore to walk through various challenges. First off, Eddie Jordan was not ready to let Michael go. So, the Jordan-Ford team principal wanted the German talent to uphold the terms of their ‘agreement in principle’ by racing for his team for the rest of 1991. However, Briatore lured Michael Schumacher to Benetton and Jordan applied for an injection in front of a British judge. In the end, the complaints were discarded as Michael went to Benetton.

However, Jordan’s demands from Schumacher were not the only hurdle in the path. Flavio Briatore ran into a conflict with Benetton’s Engineering Director Tom Walkinshaw. While the former wanted the team to keep its existing racer Nelson Piquet Sr, the latter wanted to recruit Martin Brundle. This would have been possible only if they had not hired Michael Schumacher and went with the pairing of Piquet and Brundle instead. However, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone then intervened. He had ordered the two Benetton officials, Briatore and Walkinshaw, to hire Michael Schumacher.

Speaking on the drama surrounding Schumi’s F1 debut as a regular racer, Flavio Briatore told F1maximaal, “The team, the engineers, didn’t want that [to have Schumacher at Benetton]. Michael was very young. I remember the philosophy of the engineers at that time. It was all about the racing experience. When you’re so young, how much experience do you have?“

However, the deal went through as Michael joined Benetton and stayed there till 1995. But something happened during the last season with Briatore’s team that led to the German leaving for Ferrari—what was that?

Why did Michael Schumacher leave Benetton after two Championship wins?

In 1994, while driving for Benetton, Michael Schumacher brought home his first World Championship in F1. In the following year, he did go on to defend the title but not without several controversies engulfing his team. At the Brazilian GP that year, Benetton faced allegations of using traction control (a technology that was banned in F1). Then, the FIA asked Ferrari, Benetton, and McLaren to submit copies showing their engine management system to check if any of the teams were using traction control. Benetton missed the deadline to submit the papers and incurred a fine of $100,000.

Another allegation flew around in the F1 world regarding Benetton using an illegal method to increase their fuel flow rate. The FIA and a company called Intertechnique investigated further and realized that the team had taken out the filters on its engines that prevent oil spillage. In doing so, the team intended to increase the fuel flow rate by 12.5% so that their pit stops would take 1 second less. This is a huge advantage for the cars which can lose out on podium places by some hundredths of a second.

This allegation perhaps led to Michael Schumacher taking the exit door at the end of his Benetton career. He took up an offer at Ferrari which led to his 5 World Championship victories. But do you think, if Michael had stayed at Benetton, he would not have been this successful?