'I still enjoy firing people': F1 team boss makes extraordinary claim around driver axing

Toto Wolff and Flavio Briatore — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

'I still enjoy firing people': F1 team boss makes extraordinary claim around driver axing

Alpine's executive advisor Flavio Briatore is not a man to mince his words

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 25 February 2026 19:43

A controversial F1 supremo has showed little remorse when reflecting on a brutal driver firing in the new series of Drive to Survive.

The hit Netflix docuseries is set to return on the streaming platform this Friday, February 27, with the eighth edition of the behind-the-scenes show exposing some of the biggest dramas that unfolded across the F1 2025 championship.

Whilst Christian Horner's shock Red Bull sacking naturally gets its own episode, there is also one dedicated to the mid-season driver swap that unfolded at Alpine, to the detriment of F1 rookie Jack Doohan.

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Doohan actually made his debut as a full-time F1 driver at the 2024 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after the Enstone squad opted to carry out an early driver swap between the outgoing Esteban Ocon and the incoming Doohan (yes, they've got form for this).

It was already known that Ocon would be heading to Haas for the 2025 campaign and that Doohan would be his replacement, but the team decided to hand Ocon over to Haas earlier than planned, a decision that was likely fronted by the team's executive advisor, Flavio Briatore.

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Watch out Colapinto! Briatore 'still enjoys' firing people

But Doohan's early entrance at Alpine was not a sign of good things to come, and the Australian driver was eventually met with the same fate as Ocon, being handed an early exit from the team by Briatore.

After just six grand prix weekends, Doohan was axed from his full-time role and demoted back down to the reserve driver position he had previously held since 2023.

He was replaced by Argentine racer Franco Colapinto, who, despite taking over the full-time driving duties last May, still has zero championship points to his name.

Come the conclusion of the 2025 season, both Doohan and Colapinto finished the year at the bottom of the drivers' standings, each with zero points, and Colapinto's future could be at risk if Briatore's response to the midseason axing is anything to go by.

In the season eight episode titled Strictly Business, the Netflix cameras took a trip to Briatore’s house, with the 75-year-old giving an odd tour of artworks displayed around his home that see him depicted as different historical figures.

He revealed that his favourite version of himself is where he is shown as Argentine-born Marxist, Che Guevara.

The Italian then made a shocking admission, saying: "I still enjoy [firing people], if the people are not doing their job."

"Sometimes you want the stick and to beat everyone on the head. I’m not a dictator — but you do whatever I tell you to do."

Who is Flavio Briatore?

Briatore is an Italian businessman who made his name in F1 way back in the 1990s after taking charge of Benetton's commercial affairs.

Having turned Benetton into a championship winning team with Michael Schumacher, he then did the same with Renault thanks to Fernando Alonso's back to back title success in 2005 and 2006.

But controversy hit Renault in 2008 when F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed at the Singapore GP to give an advantage to his team-mate Alonso, with the events dubbed as 'Crashgate'.

Briatore and his colleague Pat Symonds were subsequently found guilty of race fixing, with Briatore being slapped with a lifetime ban from F1 as a result.

However, that decision was overturned by a French court in 2010, with the Italian now firmly back in the sport with Alpine and clearly enjoying the power of hiring and firing that comes with his new position.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 Alpine Jack Doohan Drive to Survive Flavio Briatore