Ex-Renault Formula One boss Flavio Briatore, 73, reveals he has undergone heart surgery to remove a benign tumour in Milan

Former Formula One team executive Flavio Briatore has announced he has successfully undergone heart surgery to remove a benign tumour.

The 73-year-old Italian businessman made the announcement on Instagram, revealing the tumour had been spotted during a routine check-up.

Briatore said he has since been discharged by doctors after the 'perfectly successful' surgery, which saw the mass removed after a minimal invasive procedure.

'Today I want to talk to you about prevention,' Briatore said.

'Ten days ago I went to the San Raffaele hospital for a check-up and at that moment they found a benign tumor in my heart. 

Flavio Briatore announced on Instagram that he has undergone a successful heart operation

The Italian businessman, 73, urged people to have regular check ups following his surgery

'The doctors intervened immediately and I am here, telling you about it.

'The main thing, guys, is to do the prevention, the check-up, every year I do it. 

'I did two years ago and I didn't have this benign tumor and this year I did. We must not neglect ourselves, prevention is essential.'

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. Fernando Alonso won the driver's championship with the team in 2005 and 2006. 

Briatore is no stranger to controversy within the sport.

He was forced to resign from Renault due to his involvement in a race-fixing scandal at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix and was banned by the FIA - a punishment later overturned. 

The incident in question occurred when Nelson Piquet Jr's Renault crashed in the race, with allegations he had done so deliberately to help team-mate Alonso win the race.

Briatore (right), in his F1 glory days with star Renault driver Fernando Alonso, celebrating winning the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2003

The former F1 boss has dated a string of famous women and was previously engaged to supermodel Naomi Campbell, centre

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 the Italian from all of their events with the Renault team put on two years' probation.

Briatore later sued the FIA in French courts to clear his name and succeeded in January 2010, being awarded 15,000 Euros compensation. The two parties later reached an out-of-court settlement.

Briatore was also briefly co-owner of Queens Park Rangers Football Club but he stepped down after the English Football League requested the findings of the FIA investigation into the race-fixing affair.

The Italian has dated a string of famous women having previously been engaged to supermodel Naomi Campbell, fathered a child with Heidi Klum and being formerly married to Wonderbra model Elisabetta Gregoraci. 

He divorced Gregoraci in 2017 after being together since 2008 and the couple have one son together.

Briatore has continued to be a presence at Formula One races and was pictured at the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this month

The former Benetton and Renault team boss was seen in conversation with Christian Horner and Geri Halliwell at the Grand Prix

Despite having no official role in Formula One, Briatore has still been a regular presence at races.

Earlier this month he was pictured deep in conversation with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and his wife Geri Halliwell at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The couple had been the centre of attention at the race after Horner had been cleared by an internal Red Bull report after allegations of 'coercive behaviour' towards a female colleague.

Pictures then emerged in an anonymous e-mail sent to 149 figures within the sport revealing what appeared to be sexually suggestive WhatsApp messages to the complainant.