Former Formula One team executive Flavio Briatore has announced he has successfully undergone heart surgery to remove a benign tumour. Briatore was managing director of the Benetton Formula One team during the 1990s when a young Michael Schumacher won two world titles with them. He was later team principal of Renault F1 after they took over Benetton in 2000. An FIA investigation led to Renault being charged with conspiracy and race-fixing, with Piquet Jr alleging Briatore and Renault chief engineer Pat Symonds asked him to crash. Briatore and Symonds left the team five days later, with the Italian saying he’d left ‘to save the team.’. The FIA banned Briatore from all of their events with the Renault team put on two years’ probation.

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