Flavio Briatore (; born 12 April 1950) is an Italian businessman. He started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy. Briatore was convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s, though the convictions were successively extinguished by an amnesty. Briatore set up a number of successful
Benetton franchises as a fugitive in the
Virgin Islands and the United States. In 1990, he was promoted by
Luciano Benetton to manager of the Benetton
Formula One racing team, which became
Renault F1 in 2002. From 2007 to 2010, he was part-owner and chairman of London's
Queens Park Rangers F.C.. On 16 September 2009, Briatore was forced to resign from the ING Renault F1 team due to his involvement in
race fixing at the
2008 Singapore Grand Prix. After the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) conducted its own investigation, Briatore was banned indefinitely from any events sanctioned by the FIA, although this ban was later overturned by the French
Tribunal de Grande Instance.