Alpine shock as F1 team principal Oliver Oakes resigns, Flavio Briatore takes over
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Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes (left) and Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore during testing in Bahrain in February 2025. Oakes has resigned after less than a year in the job, the French Formula One team announced on May 6.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – Alpine’s team principal Oliver Oakes has resigned after less than a year in the job, the French Formula One team announced on May 6.
“The team has accepted his resignation with immediate effect,” Alpine said in a statement.
The 37-year-old Briton’s surprise exit comes only nine months after his appointment as successor to Frenchman Bruno Famin.
“As of today, Flavio Briatore will continue as executive adviser and will also be covering the duties previously performed by Oliver Oakes,” the team statement added.
Oakes leaves his role with Alpine ninth of the 10 teams in the constructors’ world championship after six races.
“The team would like to thank Oliver for his efforts since he joined last summer and for his contribution in helping the team secure sixth place in the 2024 constructors’ championship.
“The team will not be making any further comment,” Alpine said.
French driver Pierre Gasly has picked up all of the team’s seven points, with Australian Jack Doohan yet to score in his rookie season, costing him his spot.
Doohan’s seat has been at risk from Franco Colapinto ever since Alpine signed the Argentinian from Williams over the winter.
Doohan had replaced Esteban Ocon (now with Haas), who claimed Alpine’s sole win in Hungary in 2021.
On May 7, Alpine confirmed that Colapinto would replace Doohan for the next five races, starting at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix next week.
“The next five races will give us an opportunity to try something different and after this time period, we will assess our options,” said Briatore.
Speaking ahead of the news, championship leader Oscar Piastri has expressed his sympathy for fellow Australian Doohan.
“Coming to F1, especially as a rookie under pressure, I do feel sorry for him in some ways,” McLaren driver Piastri told ABC television from England on May 7.
“It’s not been the easiest start to the year for him and I know how hard it is to get to F1 in the first place. So I think whatever happens, he can be very proud of the journey so far.”
While Doohan is 19th in the drivers’ standings after two retirements and a best finish of 13th in his first six grands prix, Piastri is 16 points clear at the top in the wake of four wins in the first six rounds.
Oakes’ unexpected departure is the latest chapter in a rocky time for the former Renault team.
He told AFP in November 2024 he wanted Alpine to shrug off their problems and be at “the front” of the midfield this season. He said there was “no silver bullet”.
“I think we ultimately have to produce a better car,” the former racing driver conceded.
Next season, Renault will stop producing F1 engines, with Alpine becoming a customer outfit using engines supplied by Mercedes.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly (left) and Jack Doohan.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Oakes, the 2005 world karting champion, succeeded Famin in 2024 after the appointment of one of F1’s most controversial figures, Briatore.
The Italian was boss of the team when they raced as Benetton and Renault and won championships with Michael Schumacher in 1994 and 1995 and Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.
He was also instrumental in signing Colapinto from Williams as reserve in January.
“Clearly, Franco is among the best young talent in motor sport right now,” Briatore said at the time.
The 75-year-old Briatore remains a controversial figure in Formula One due to his involvement in one of the biggest scandals in the sport’s history.
He received a lifetime ban when the “Crashgate” scandal exploded in 2009 but that was overturned by a French court in 2010 and he returned in 2024 as executive adviser to Renault chief executive Luca de Meo.
Oakes’ resignation is the latest in a series of senior management departures at Alpine, reflecting deep-rooted instability at the top of the organisation.
Otmar Szafnauer took over as team principal in early 2022, but left in July 2023 as part of a sweeping leadership shake-up that also saw the exits of chief technical officer Pat Fry and long-serving sporting director Alan Permane.
Famin briefly succeeded Szafnauer but stepped down in August 2024, making way for Oakes.
The upheaval at Alpine has also extended beyond the leadership tier.
Technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer both resigned in early 2024, while Rob White, a veteran with over two decades at Renault and Alpine, stepped down as operations director in May 2024. AFP, REUTERS, XINHUA
