Briatore recalls Verstappen's horror pit lane fire: 'That was a big shock'
F1 News
Flavio Briatore returned to Alpine this season, after he was suspended from the sport because of the notorious 'Crashgate' incident that happened at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Back in 1994, when the team were called Benetton, Briatore was involved in another major incident, when Jos Verstappen's Benetton caught fire at the Hockenheimring.
Jos Verstappen, the father of Max Verstappen, entered the pit lane driving a Benetton F1 car for a regular stop at the 1994 German Grand Prix. At the time, teams had to refuel their cars, and in the 1994 season, many teams removed a filter that helped to make this process faster, earning important seconds each Grand Prix weekend.
On the Formula for Success podcast, at the time team principal Briatore explained what happened there. "You know better than me. I have no idea about the refuelling," the Italian began to explain to Eddie Jordan. "[What] My people tell me was, [to] agree to take away this filter."
Once the fuel spilled all over Verstappen's Benetton and it caught fire, Briatore was shocked: "Honestly, I was surprised, when we were being in this situation with Verstappen. It was very close, if you see the video, I was [the] one very close to try to help Verstappen to get out of the car. This was a big shock, anyway. And with this one, it was unbelievable, I will never forget it all my life."
Luckily for Jos Verstappen, he was back at the following race already, and scored a podium finish at the Hungaroring, and then also at Spa-Francorchamps.