‘No silver bullet’ as Alpine chief plots Formula One fightback

SAO PAULO – Oliver Oakes, the team principal of Formula One’s Alpine, has big goals as he wants his strugglers to shrug off their problems and be at “the front” of the midfield next season.

But the 36-year-old Englishman admits there is no “silver bullet” to remedy the team’s issues. Alpine were in ninth in the constructors’ standings heading into the weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Their desperate campaign was epitomised by Esteban Ocon’s ill-advised attempt to overtake teammate Pierre Gasly in the Monaco GP which resulted in damage to both cars.

Ocon, who recorded Alpine’s sole Grand Prix success in Hungary in 2021, was criticised by the team and is leaving at the end of the season. He is to be replaced by rookie Jack Doohan, son of Australia’s five-time motorcycling world champion Mick Doohan.

However, Ocon silenced some of his critics after grabbing fourth place in a delayed rainswept qualifying at Interlagos on Nov 3, which saw McLaren’s Lando Norris take pole position, ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, facing a five-place grid penalty, started 17th for the race, which began a few hours later as qualifying on Nov 2 was cancelled because of inclement weather.  

Oakes, who took charge in August, said: “I’m massively motivated. I never want to walk to the back of the grid. I get upset.

“There are small goals in my head already of where I want to be.

“I think starting March next year that’s sort of my immediate thing on my radar is we need to get back to be consistently in the midfield, at the front of it. That’s where this team was more often than not. Unfortunately the last years we slipped back.”

Oakes, a former racing driver himself though never in Formula One, also said the reason for Red Bull’s dominance ending this season is because other teams have raised their game.

That is an example Alpine should follow, with Oakes saying: “This year there has been a lot of teams winning. No one is dominating. I think for that F1 has changed quite a lot in terms of every team has raised its level.

“For us, if we want to be back in the front, we also need to be appreciating that.”

But he added that there is no “master plan” about how to turn things around.

“I think there is no silver bullet,” he said. “I think we ultimately have to produce a better car. We have to be humble where we need to improve.

“We’re not the biggest team on the grid by any means... But I feel we’re in a good position. I think by January next year, February, people will see a little more of the momentum coming.” AFP