FOTA’s commercial head Briatore takes it upon himself to spice up F1.

As the controversial rear diffuser issue drama is resolved, FOTA’s commercial head has come up with a new publicity stunt. Point a finger at one of the teams with the controversial rear diffuser and shout as loud as you can. The goal, getting free publicity even when there is no F1 race taking place.

With the controversial rear diffuser issue resolved, there isn’t much off track activity going on in F1. So it looks like Briatore decided it was a good idea to generate some publicity. The only problem is he did too good a job and some media outlets have started preparing for FOTA’s funeral.

After the diffuser verdict came out Briatore went on the attack his target of choice being Brawn. And that meant anyone associated with Brawn, this despite the fact that Brawn is only one of three teams with controversial rear diffusers.

If Briatore was upset with Ross Brawn which he has been since the diffusers were unveiled, he should have taken on Ross Brawn in person. But in true Briatore fashion he had to make more than a few headlines, which is what going after Ross Brawn alone would have meant.

So instead of focusing on Ross Brawn he went after Jenson Button and Reubens Barrichello. Fortunately both drivers as well as Ross Brawn realized what Briatore was up to and dismissed the whole thing with a laugh.

With Redbull convincingly dominating Shanghai, Briatore’s claim that the rear diffuser gang will runaway with the title is discredited. The top drivers and former champions are at the back of the grid because their teams weren’t ready for the challenge.

He is forgetting that Renault came from obscurity to dominate F1 for two seasons with Michael Schumacher still around. Fernando Alonso didn’t beat Schumacher because his Renault was necessarily faster than the Ferrari and neither did Redbull dominate because they had a better rear diffuser.  

Flavio Briatore is too smart to even consider upsetting FOTA’s unity. As the commercial head he knows first hand what FOTA means to the teams. And FOTA’s strength is unfortunately its weakness, team unity. Is Flavio Briatore willing to sacrifice FOTA to please his eagle? I strongly doubt it and I don’t think if the other teams will let him get away with it.

So the bottom line here is Flavio Briatore is doing what any smart Commercial head would do, keep people talking about your product. Create publicity so the more noises you make the better. No one is going to loose revenue, FOTA will remain strong and Brawn GP will still be the same Brawn GP.