Briatore slams Mercedes and Toyota

Flavio Briatore has launched a scathing attack on McLaren and Toyota for wasting money and providing little to the Formula One show, claiming they are more interested in developing secret gizmos for their cars than trying to make races more thrilling.

"Formula One is a big TV event and making it as good as it can be is our business," he told F1 Racing.

"Technology is important but we need to take more care of our customers – the people who watch the television event – and that's why F1 should be all about entertainment.

"Hollywood needs top-class engineers, cameramen and special effects but those guys aren't what Hollywood is about. They just make it happen," he said.

"Unfortunately in some other teams the senior people started as engineers – and engineers don't care about making F1 a successful business.

"They care about achieving their own happiness from finding a new aerodynamic step or something. The people in charge should be businessmen, not ex-engineers. Nothing costs more money and delivers less entertainment than hidden technology.

"F1 is a very special dream which excites people's imagination. Where does that dream come from? Not from the complexities inside the gearbox."