Flavio Briatore, the Italian playboy who heads Renault's Formula 1 team, says he's reassessed his glamorous lifestyle thanks to a recent brush with cancer.
Briatore, whose past girlfriends include supermodels Heidi Klum and Naomi Campell, revealed to Italian weekly 'A' that last month he learned he had a malignant tumour in his left kidney.
He underwent an operation in Italy, after which doctors told him he was out of danger. But they also said that curing him would have been extremely "complicated" had the tumour been found six months later.
"We feel immortal but we ought to thank God every morning simply for being able to have a shave," he told the weekly in an interview full of humility and sober comments on life.
Briatore said he had spent long hours alone during his treatment and had learned a great deal from the experience.
"You think that perhaps all you've built up is only worth so much. It might even be useless".
The perpetually tanned 56-year-old made his money in America as a key executive in the Benetton clothing empire. He moved into Formula 1 with the Benetton team and discovered Michael Schumacher.
As head of the Renault team he oversaw the rise of current world champion Fernando Alonso.
Thanks to his love of nightlife, yachts and VIP parties, Briatore frequently features on the pages of gossip magazines. He is a "myth for the average Italian", according to the Corriere della Sera daily.
But at least some of that aura of glamour could be about to disappear. "At least 15% of my former life was superfluous," he said. "I'll do without it now. I want to dedicate time to myself and to those in need."
He gave no details of which parts of his life he intended to give up.
