Flavio Briatore claims F1 star should have won EIGHT world titles

Controversial F1 supremo Flavio Briatore has made the bold claim that one drivers' champion should have picked up at least eight titles across their racing career.

Now an executive advisor with Alpine, the Italian businessman has become the new face of the Enstone outfit he once called home during its Renault era, despite being banned from the sport indefinitely over the 2008 'Crashgate' scandal.

A French court eventually overturned the ban, lifting Briatore's lifetime block from the F1 paddock, but his name is still intertwined with the events of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix where he and Pat Symonds asked number two driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to purposely crash in order to benefit Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Alonso went on to win the race but the following year, his Renault team were charged with fixing the race by the FIA.

The Spanish star also remains a frequent figure of the F1 paddock due to the fact that he still races over 15 years later with Aston Martin, though he has never been able to find championship success since winning the 2005 and 2006 drivers' titles with Briatore and Renault.

Though Alonso may have departed the Enstone-based squad, the pair still keep in contact and in a recent appearance on Dazn programme 'Bravissimo', Briatore delivered a blunt evaluation of Alonso's talent and his career success.

Can Alonso add to championship tally?

Briatore claimed Alonso should have gone way beyond the two championship victories he secured in the early 2000s, and was quoted by Italian publication Corriere dello Sport as saying: "A driver like him should have won six or eight world championships, because he always made the difference for his team."

Despite the Spaniard only picking up two title wins in his career so far, Briatore continued to congratulate his former driver on doing so, adding: "In life, there are ten or fifteen things you remember forever. Bravo, bravo, bravo. Bravo, Fernando."

Alonso has tried many different formulas to return to winning ways though sadly, none of them have resulted in the now 44-year-old picking up any more silverware.

He even returned to Enstone again in 2021, coming out of retirement to join the new Alpine F1 team, and though he did pick up a podium, he was nowhere near championship contention.

But 2026 could present perhaps the best and last chance for Alonso to be a frontrunner once again as he gets to compete in an Adrian Newey-designed F1 car for the first time in his career.

When Newey's technical mind is paired with a level playing field brought on by next year's new regulations, Alonso could certainly prove competitive, though some drivers have claimed the competitive order will not become clear until at least the spring of 2026.

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