’Red hope’ for Ferrari as 2023 car improves - Briatore

Flavio Briatore says some "red hope" emerged from the Canadian GP last weekend.

The former Renault boss and Italian is still involved in the management of Fernando Alonso’s career - and the 41-year-old Spaniard finished just 9 seconds behind dominant world champion Max Verstappen in Montreal.

In third place was yet another multiple world champion - seven-time title winner Lewis Hamilton.

"We saw the three most important Formula 1 champions on the podium," Briatore told Il Reformista newspaper.

"It podium where the three best forces and the three best drivers in Formula 1 were up there," he added, referring to Red Bull, Aston Martin and Mercedes.

However, he also acknowledged the fact that the improving Ferraris also had impressive race pace on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

"Although they were behind, they had a race pace close to that of Aston Martin and very close to that of Mercedes," said the 73-year-old.

"It was perhaps the first time this year that we saw those from Maranello maintain a similar pace to the British and the Germans," Briatore added.

"Not everything is rosy, of course, especially as Ferrari made a mistake in qualifying and that penalised them, forcing them to be in the middle of the grid.

"But there was some red hope," he said.

"Now we are waiting for Ferrari to continue on this path, with the hope that Aston Martin closes the gap with Red Bull. But it has to be said that the world championship already seems to be assigned to the rampant Max Verstappen."