Alpine have shocked the Formula 1 fraternity by announcing team principal Oliver Oakes had resigned from his position with immediate effect on 2025-05-06. Oakes, a former world karting champion in his brief career as a driver before switching to the managerial side of the sport with the highly successful Hitech Grand Prix junior team, became Alpine's team principal in 2024. The Brit, who took over from Frenchman Bruno Famin in July, inherited a team in a state of off-track and on-track turmoil. Results had flatlined due to the limitations of the cumbersome A524, causing then-technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer to resign.
Off-track, Alpine announced they would end their association with Renault at the end of 2026 and become a Mercedes customer. Initially, Oakes' appointment steadied the ship at Alpine with results steadily improving despite the off-track saga, which saw Renault engineers travel to the Italian GP at Monza to protest the company's departure from F1. The highlight of the 2024 season came at a wet Sao Paulo GP, where Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly secured a double podium finish of second and third behind race winner Max Verstappen. The French pair's heroics vaulted Alpine from ninth to sixth in the 2024 Constructors' Championship.
However, the brief moment in the sun later became the sole highlight of Oakes' brief reign. Despite promising pre-season testing times, Alpine have floundered so far in 2025, with the team's best result of seventh coming courtesy of Pierre Gasly at the Bahrain GP. The team's second driver, Australian rookie Jack Doohan, has had his future placed under constant scrutiny, with the son of former world motorcycle champion Mick Doohan not helping his case with a series of costly accidents.
Adding to the stifling atmosphere at Alpine was Franco Colapinto's January arrival as the team's reserve driver after the Argentine had impressed in a nine-race stint with Williams in 2024. Colapinto is the apple of highly influential executive advisor Flavio Briatore and carries with him substantial financial backing from Argentinian companies such as Mercado Libre, which became a sponsor of Alpine in February.
Last Sunday's Miami GP was another horrific weekend for Alpine. Although Gasly picked up a single point in the Sprint courtesy of drivers ahead of him receiving penalties, the Anglo-French team had little to show from the weekend. Neither driver scored points in Sunday's race, with Gasly finishing 13th while Doohan's race ended on the opening lap following contact with Liam Lawson. Currently, Alpine sits ninth in the Constructors' Championship on seven points, 30 points behind fifth place in Williams, heading into next Sunday's Emilia-Romagna GP at Imola.
With Oakes' sudden departure, Briatore returns to the position of team principal of 'Team Enstone' for a third time. Briatore returned to the F1 paddock as an Alpine executive advisor in June 2024 despite being banned from F1 for life in 2009 for his involvement in the 'Crashgate' scandal at the 2008 Singapore GP. There, Briatore, then Renault's team principal and executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, instructed the team's second driver, Nelson Piquet Jr., to crash on purpose. The Brazilian's shunt on lap 13 allowed teammate Fernando Alonso, who had pitted before the safety car, to cycle into the lead and win the race from 15th on the grid.
The colourful Italian first arrived in the F1 paddock in 1989, fresh from the business world where he had previously been the director of the Benetton fashion brand's operations in the United States. Luciano Benetton appointed him as commercial director of the company's F1 team, and he began making rapid changes, firing team manager Peter Collins and recruiting highly rated designer John Barnard. Although he had previously shown relative ambivalence towards the sport, Briatore quickly became a highly influential figure in the F1 paddock and made his name by poaching Michael Schumacher from Jordan in 1991. Despite only completing one race start for Jordan before joining Benetton, Schumacher's signing proved to be a masterstroke.
Midway through his first full season in 1992, the German became a race winner at Spa with a masterful drive in the wet. In 1994, Briatore's dream became a reality as Schumacher became world champion following a season dogged by allegations of cheating, which put Benetton on the cusp of being thrown out of that year's championship. Schumacher secured his second world title in 1995 and Benetton's first Constructors' Championship, but the German's departure to Ferrari in 1996 ended the run of championships.
In 1997, Briatore left Benetton to be replaced by David Richards, but he wasn't out of the sport for long. He returned in 2000, shortly after Renault brought the former Constructors' Champions. For 2003, Briatore replaced Jenson Button with another of his prodigies, Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who had impressed many in his single season with Minardi in 2001. Briatore's decision to replace Button with Alonso proved to be a masterstroke. In 2005, he became the sport's youngest world champion, ending Schumacher's run of five world titles and making it back-to-back in 2006, Briatore's last title to date.
Oakes' resignation comes as rumors swirl about the future of Jack Doohan's seat and whether Franco Colapinto will replace the Australian driver at Imola, the start of a European tripleheader. Alpine's also had a difficult run this season and sits ninth in the team standings with seven points, just one more than 10th-place Sauber. Alpine lacked speed in Miami, and Pierre Gasly said after the race, "We were on the back foot throughout the whole weekend, so I want to believe and probably hope that it’s more related to this track and the tarmac and the conditions we faced, but honestly at the minute we just need more time to get some answers."
Now, with Oakes gone, the question remains: can Briatore turn around Alpine's fortunes once more? With his extensive experience and a history of success in the sport, the team will be looking to him to navigate through these turbulent times and reclaim their place among the top teams in Formula 1.
