The five biggest influencers in the world of Formula 1

Motorsport is mainly about what happens on track, but if you canwork it to your advantage off track amid all of the politics youcan get a lot more out of it. RacingNews365 takes a look at some ofthese influential figures and the role they have made in changingthe course of history in F1 through their politics off the track.Do you agree with all of these names? Let us know in the commentsand perhaps there will be a sequel to this article! Fernando AlonsoYou either hate or love Fernando Alonso. The Spanish driver enteredF1 at the turn of the century and immediately stood out. At firstmainly because of his raw speed, but not long after that alsobecause of his striking character. This began during his successfulyears at Renault, where he was the first driver to be able to getthe better material from his superiors. When he realised thatRenault might not fare so well in 2007, he decided to sign acontract with McLaren even during the 2006 season. His time atMcLaren was short-lived: due to an internal battle with rookieteammate Lewis Hamilton, he left after just one season. Many aseasoned F1 fan will remember the 2007 Hungarian GP, where hedeliberately held up Hamilton in the pit lane so that the Britoncould no longer set a fast lap. After his brief McLaren adventure,Alonso returned to Renault and was implicated as part of theinfamous crashgate scandal . In 2010, Alonso signed a contract withFerrari. Things thrived between the two-time world champion and theScuderia, but over time cracks appeared in the marriage. Thereason? Alonso reportedly played "too many political games" withinthe team. In 2015, Alonso left and rejoined McLaren amid theirengine deal with Honda. This turned out to be a short-lived movefor the Spaniard, who left at the end of 2018 to spend a couple ofyears competing in other racing series including WEC with Toyota.In 2021, he made a surprise comeback at Team Enstone now known asAlpine (formerly Renault). Alonso produced great results, butbehind Alpine's back he signed a huge multimillion-dollar contractwith Aston Martin in the middle of 2022 to replace the outgoingSebastien Vettel. The move turned out to be one of the best of thesilly season, with him taking seven podiums in 2023. BernieEcclestone The Rolling Stones made rock & roll belovedworldwide, Cruijff and Pelé made soccer great, and BernieEcclestone made F1 a world sport. This did not happen without astruggle. Originally a garage owner, he entered the sport in the1950s and switched to team ownership in the mid-1970s when hebought the Brabham team. During this period, Bernie also startedtrading television rights to F1, a veritable kickstart to therevenues that enabled its growth in the late 90s. Ecclestone'sbusiness vision led F1 to be firmly commercialized. Old,dilapidated circuits - such as the one at Zandvoort - disappearedfrom the calendar and Ecclestone struck interesting deals with justabout anyone to turn the premier class into a multi-million dollarindustry. The above became all the more obvious in 1997, when theUnited Kingdom wanted to ban tobacco advertising in sports.Ecclestone put a stop to that by sitting down with former PrimeMinister Tony Blair. The result? The government made an exception;F1 could "just" continue to run tobacco advertising. Ecclestone'sextraordinary practices cannot be named in one item. An entire book- or perhaps even an omnibus - could be written about them. Whatabout that weekend in Indianapolis in 2005 and Bernie's role in theCrashgate case? Flavio Briatore Flavio Briatore is best known asthe man who made the careers of Michael Schumacher and FernandoAlonso. However, true F1 connoisseurs also know full well that theItalian is anything but a saint... Briatore and his Benetton teamachieved many successes in the 1990s. In 1994 and 1995, whenSchumacher became World Champion; Briatore was his team boss at thetime. Benetton was later accused of driving with illegal softwarein 1994, while also exploring other grey areas. Incidentally, thiswas not the first time Briatore and Benetton had been compromised.Briatore had worked for the clothing brand since the late 1970s andwas accused and convicted of fraud several times in his earlyyears. In 2009, it came out that Briatore was involved in the 2008Crashgate scandal, which took place during the Singapore GP. Duringthe race, Nelson Piquet Jr had deliberately crashed so his teammateFernando Alonso could win the race on strategy. Briatore was bannedfrom Formula 1 by the FIA, a decision that was later reversed.Jean-Marie Balestre Jean-Marie Balestre was a leading figure at theFIA and FISA in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In the early 1980s, heplayed an important role in the "FISA-FOCA conflict," a politicalbattle over finance and control within F1. Balestre and hisopponent, Ecclestone, eventually reached a compromise after anintervention by Enzo Ferrari. In 1981, Balestre signed the firstConcorde Agreement, in which the FOCA obtained F1's commercialrights, while the FIA retained control of the sporting andtechnical aspects. In 1981, Balestre signed the first ConcordeAgreement, in which the FOCA obtained F1's commercial rights, whilethe FIA retained control of the sporting and technical aspects. Inthe mid-1980s, Balestre was actively involved in the World RallyChampionship, particularly during the era of the Group B segment.After a series of fatal accidents in the 1986 season, Balestre madethe decision to ban the entire Group B class from the championship,which resulted in considerable criticism and controversy. Balestrewas accused of abuse of power on several occasions, a notableexample being the title fight between Alain Prost and Ayrton Sennain F1 in 1989. Following the incident between Prost and Senna atSuzuka, insinuations surfaced in Autosport Magazine that Balestrehad manipulated the outcome of the championship in Prost's favor bydisqualifying, fining and suspending Senna. This event led to theappointment of Max Mosley as president of FISA. Michael SchumacherMichael Schumacher absolutely cannot be left out of this list. TheWorld Champion has 91 victories and seven titles to his name,something that has only been eclipsed and broken by Lewis Hamilton.Notwithstanding his controversial 1994 season at Benetton in hisgolden years at Ferrari between 1997 and 2006, Schumacher wasresponsible for changing the game for drivers. His attention todetail off the track and focus on the physical aspect of driverfitness led to today's modern athletes. Want to know more aboutSchumacher's greatest moments? Read about them here.