Telefonica may back Alonso’s Renault return
Briatore told reporters earlier this week that he would "love to have him (Alonso) in the team, I think everyone would want Fernando because he is exceptional."
"But," he added, "he has a contract with someone."
This led to speculation that Briatore could make a bid to and buy Alonso out of his McLaren contract and bring him back to Renault, with whom he won the 2005 and 2006 drivers' championship titles.
However, Ghosn has put an end to such rumors, saying that Renault can achieve success next season without the Spaniard at the helm.
"Success in F1 is always the product of team work," Ghosn said, when asked if Renault would make a bid for Alonso.
"It needs a perfect car, chassis, engine, tires, team effort, and driver of course. The best driver cannot succeed without a perfect team and vice versa.
"I demand from the team to compete at the highest level. If we cannot come first we have to be at least runner-up. But I do not interfere with the daily operations, for this we have Flavio (Briatore) and (team president) Alain (Dassas).
"The team know what it takes to win. This year, we started late because the title fight of 2006 took our full efforts until the very last race. The final laps.
"We had to pay for this and we had to get used to new tires, a new driver. But I am absolutely confident we will be successful in 2008.
"But this is not depending on one person." SkySports
08/14/07 (GMM) Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica has reportedly backed Flavio Briatore's campaign to reunite Renault with Fernando Alonso.
Coinciding with reigning world champion and Spaniard Alonso's switch to McLaren, the Madrid based company – previously pledging $30m per year to Renault as a major sponsor – left the French team at the end of 2006.
But subsequent to reports that the Enstone based outfit's team principal Briatore is planning a meeting with Alonso in Turkey later this month, the specialist magazine Auto Motor und Sport says Telefonica might be willing to return to Renault if the disgruntled 26-year-old also comes back.
Triple world champion and commentator Niki Lauda told Bild newspaper that he doubts Briatore would fork out the necessary money to re-hire Alonso — unless a big backer like Telefonica can help.
In addition to Alonso's current (US) $27m per year salary, Briatore might also have to foot a multi-million bill to buy out Alonso's McLaren contract.
"Briatore has never been willing to pay bills of that size," Austrian legend Lauda noted.