Flavio Briatore will apparently be invited by Bernie Ecclestone to be part of a group looking at ways of improving the F1 show.
Ecclestone invited team bosses to a meeting in Hungary today where the sport’s future – put into focus by the small crowd at Hockenheim – was the main subject on the agenda.
One of the team representatives present mentioned Briatore as man who knows about such things, and Ecclestone was keen on the idea, much to the surprise of some of the other team bosses.
Ecclestone is understood to have suggested forming a ‘working group’ which will consist of several teams, believed to include Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and Force India, plus himself and Briatore. It remains to be seen how this new body fits in with the existing Strategy Group.
Speaking to Sky F1 after the meeting Christian Horner said: “The teams get together and they talk about things. The drivers have got to be the heroes. Thereafter the cars should be secondary to that, whether its chassis or engine. As a package the cars should be secondary to the drivers.
“The drivers, we need to give more access to, and the fans have got to be able to engage with their heroes. When I was growing up, Nigel Mansell was my hero. I think it’s important in today’s world that there’s more and better access to the drivers, and a bit more behind the scenes.”
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog 
Briatore: “People like crashes. I’ll send Nelsinho out in an R28 to crash on lap 14 of every race”.
“Speaking to Sky F1 after the meeting Christian Horner said: “The teams get together and they talk about things. The drivers have got to be the heroes. Thereafter the cars should be secondary to that, whether its chassis or engine. As a package the cars should be secondary to the drivers.”
So, in order to “improve the show” they are going to stand F1’s long history of being a technology-driven sport on its head and TRY to make the drivers “heroes”. Let’s all refresh our memories of what a “hero” actually is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero
Regardless, Christian, you can’t PR people into being “heroes”; it has to be earned in the eyes of the public by actually performing heroic deeds (not possible in an F1 car, btw.)
What Bernie and Horner want are “idols”. They should query Japanese pop culture for the answers. :rolling eyes:
These clowns are simply beyond belief.
Brian