Red Bull rejects Briatore's driver salary cap proposal

Jun.9 (GMM)  Flavio Briatore believes Formula 1 should include driver salaries in the budget cap.

The 75-year-old Italian, who recently returned to the sport as Alpine's executive advisor after a long hiatus and even a ban, agrees that spending limits are important.

"Limiting the amount teams can spend is good," he said. "I also believe the salary of the driver should be part of it - not only what we have now."

According to the well-connected Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Red Bull is "totally opposed" to Briatore’s proposal. The reigning world champions currently pay Max Verstappen one of the most lucrative salaries on the grid.

Briatore, meanwhile, said that if he had the choice of signing any driver, he would pick "two Verstappens - because I have two cars."

He believes that if teams were limited in what they could spend on drivers, Alpine would be able to close the gap to the front of the grid more quickly.

"I promised (Renault CEO) Luca (de Meo) that in two, three years, the team would be on the podium, or very close to the podium," he told the New York Times.

Still, he sees no reason why Alpine couldn’t eventually beat all current front-runners and win the world championship.

"Why not? Sure," Briatore insisted. "If you see the teams in front of us, they're nothing special. It's only people - more committed, less distracted.

"It has not been easy at this team," he continued. "Hiring people, firing people, no order, no direction, nothing. Everybody was in charge, nobody was in charge.

"We lost a lot of good people, but now, little by little, they are coming back to us."]]>