Briatore: I came back to Formula 1 to win.

      Flavio Briatore's new role at Alpine is called executive advisor, but Renault CEO Luca Demeo called it shorter and more succinctly: "He is the boss." At the presentation in London, Briatore summed up the results of the first eight months at the helm of the team.

      Flavio Briatore: "Nothing has changed. The team used to be called Benetton, then Renault, now it's Alpine. I have the same office as before. However, now I don't have a bedroom here, which has been converted into a meeting room, so it used to be better.

      When I returned to Enstone, I saw a group of people making a car here. They didn't care if she was fast or slow. It was their job. If we talk about what has changed, now there is passion in the eyes of these people. Last night I stayed at the base until half past eleven at night, and when I left, there were 80 or 90 people there. We've become a racing team again.

      Team leader Oliver Oakes is young, ambitious and knows the racing business – he was a racing driver himself, a world champion in karting. He now lives near the base, gets up in the morning and is already at work. That's exactly the spirit that reigns at Alpine right now."

      Why can't we win races in 2026? Everyone starts from scratch, everyone will have new cars. I came back to Formula 1 to win, but for that we have to be competitive in everything. And we are gradually moving towards this. Our power plant wasn't the best, so we chose Mercedes. A good relationship with Toto Wolff helped me.

      Now the car is covered in sponsor stickers. The engineers complain that the car is too heavy, but I reply that if we remove the sticker, we will remove the money."