There’s a new player in F1 town vying for Adrian Newey’s favor! The British engineer has been the center of attention ever since he announced his Red Bull exit earlier this year. As one of the most successful car designers in Formula 1 history, Newey’s career statistics have made a couple of teams take interest in hiring the 65-year-old. Among them, Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Williams have been the frontrunners till now. But Alpine has recently entered this mix as one of its key officials, with Flavio Briatore naming the price he will pay for Adrian Newey.

Alpine is currently down in the eighth spot on the World Constructors’ Championship with just 11 points. On top of that, it will lose one of its recruits, Esteban Ocon, ahead of the upcoming season. At a time like this, Alpine’s parent team, Renault, has appointed F1’s kingmaker Flavio Briatore. He will act as the Special Advisor to Renault CEO Luca de Meo to salvage the situation that Alpine is in. Despite the allegations against Briatore for playing a part in the 2008 Singapore GP crashgate incident, he is one of the most prolific managers a team can have.

Flavio Briatore has played as a mentor to Michael Schumacher as well as Fernando Alonso. Thus, he definitely has an eye for talent and this time, his eyes are set on Adrian Newey. But Flavio is already late to enter the chase after the British F1 legend. So, he is playing a giant card to tilt the competition in his favor–he has claimed Alpine will offer Adrian Newey “carte blanche“, as per Formula Passion.

So, the French team wanted to give Newey full autonomy regarding the team decisions while Ferrari had held back this offer. In this way, perhaps, Adrian Newey might pick Alpine as his next destination since his discussions with the Scuderia had slowed down because they would not give him such liberty. This offer from Alpine comes right after Flavio Briatore claimed, in his prophecy for the team, that picking racers for the team is not important right now.

Flavio Briatore delivered Alpine prophecy by discounting discussions on racers

With a below-expectations performance in the current season, Alpine is already aware that it needs to do much better in 2025. And Flavio Briatore is here to help the team do just that. However, the 74-year-old does not think the French outfit can improve its scores by recruiting new racers right now. Briatore has recognized that building some other aspects of Alpine is the need of the moment. Thus, when the ex-F1 team owner, Eddie Jordan, asked Flavio regarding his opinions on Jack Doohan replacing Esteban Ocon at Alpine, the Italian claimed he was unaware of his team’s recruitment picks.

Speaking to Jordan, Flavio Briatore said, “I don’t know yet [about which driver will get Ocon’s Alpine seat]. You know, at this moment you need to put the team together. The technical side, the management side…the driver will not make a difference now. In 2006, 2007…the difference was made by the driver. At this moment, I believe, only one driver was available, that is Carlos Sainz. I believe he has gone to Williams.” As Sainz has chosen Williams over Alpine, Briatore might have realized that he needs to strengthen the Enstone team with a better workforce now. And his first step towards doing that is by recruiting a Chief Technical Officer like Adrian Newey.

So, Flavio Briatore seems to have entered the F1 scene with a battle plan ready for Alpine. Do you think he can succeed in recruiting Adrian Newey to move forth with this plan? Let us know in the comments.