Breaking News:Former team principal hires Alpine as consultant

Schumacher won his first two drivers’ titles in 1994 and 1995, whilst Benetton was crowned constructors’ champions in the latter year. In 2005 and 2006, Alonso and Renault won the drivers’ and constructors’ crowns.

Briatore’s reign, however, ended in controversy when the 74-year-old was forced to step down over his involvement in the ‘Crashgate’ saga in which Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help team-mate Alonso to victory.

Briatore was initially handed an indefinite suspension from FIA-sanctioned events by motorsport’s world governing body, a decision that was overturned by an independent French tribunal in early 2010.

Flavio Briatore is to make a return to F1 with the organisation he left 15 years ago, RacingNews365 understands.

Alpine staff were apparently informed of the move at their bases in Enstone and Viry on Thursday evening.

The flamboyant Italian was previously team boss at Benetton and Renault, guiding the outfit to titles with drivers Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.

Alpine Formula 1 driver Esteban Ocon says he expects his team to keep rotating its heavier chassis after being “a couple of kilos” overweight in Canada.

Gasly and Ocon both scored points in Montreal amid some unease over a late position swap. But the fact that both drivers ended up in the top 10 was already a positive result for Alpine after a disappointing qualifying result for Ocon.

Ocon went out in the first stage of qualifying in 18th, missing the cut to Q2 by a tenth and a half compared to Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly.

As well as dealing with traffic, Ocon explained part of his deficit to Gasly was down to driving a heavier chassis than his team-mate since Miami.