Alpine has announced the immediate resignation of its team principal, Oliver Oakes.
He had been in the role for little more than nine months, having taken over from his predecessor Bruno Famin at the end of last year.“BWT Alpine Formula 1 Team announces that Oliver Oakes has resigned from his role as team principal,” said a statement issued by Alpine on Tuesday evening.
“The team has accepted his resignation with immediate effect.”
The team said its executive advisor Flavio Briatore “will also be covering the duties previously performed by Oliver Oakes” in addition to his existing role.
“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,” Alpine added.
“The team will not be making any further comment.”
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Briatore ran the team during its previous incarnations as Benetton in the late eighties and early nineties, and Renault in the noughties. He took them to championship successes with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.
However Briatore left the team in disgrace in 2009 after the FIA ruled he and chief technical officer Pat Symonds were behind the ‘Crashgate’ conspiracy at the previous year’s Singapore Grand Prix. The pair arranged for Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash at a chosen point early in the race in order to help his team mate Alonso to victory.
The FIA banned Briatore from the sport indefinitely, but he successfully overturned the ruling by appealing to the French Tribunal de Grande Instance in 2010.
The news comes as Alpine again finds itself the focus of speculation over its driver line-up. Briatore has long been thought to favour replacing Jack Doohan, who started his seventh grand prix for the team last weekend, with Franco Colapinto.
Last week a sponsor of Colapinto’s indicated he would make his debut for the team at next week’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. Oakes said in Miami on Friday: “As it is today, Jack is our driver along with Pierre [Gasly].”
Oakes joined Alpine having previously run his own single-seater team, Hitech, which competes in Formula 2, Formula 3 and other junior categories. It made an unsuccessful bid to join the Formula 1 grid in 2023, when its application was turned down by the FIA.
By taking over as team principal Briatore becomes the sixth individual to hold the position in five years, following Cyril Abiteboul, Davide Brivio, Otmar Szafnauer, Bruno Famin and Oakes.
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- No truth to claims Oakes resigned over disagreement – Briatore
HK (@me4me)
6th May 2025, 20:16
Should be quite clear what happened here. First test if he had any say in anything (driver decision) or not. Turns out he had not and Flav runs the show.
Neil (@neilosjames)
6th May 2025, 20:16
No prizes for guessing what the next personnel change at Alpine will be.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th May 2025, 21:13
Ikr. Very clear what’s going to happen next & in time for the next round now that Oakes is gone.
Oople
6th May 2025, 20:21
Every day, Piastri’s decision to jump that ship becomes a bigger and bigger win.
Federico (@federicod)
6th May 2025, 20:27
We’ll see, after Alpine will cheat its way to the World Championship in 2026 maybe he’ll regret it.
Ben
6th May 2025, 20:47
Nah, he’ll already be champion and there’s zero chance Alpine win a race in 2026 yet alone a championship.
Federico (@federicod)
6th May 2025, 20:49
Never underestimate Briatore, he helped a t-shirt company launder money and won multiple championships on the side, while innovating the science of cheating to new heights.
Andrew
7th May 2025, 7:44
And received a “lifetime” ban for his achievements didn’t he?
Must be tough not being able to be in the sport anymore 🤨🙄
BasCB (@bascb)
6th May 2025, 20:25
When again was it that everyone at Alpine claimed Briatore was only there in an advisor role? Anyway, it’s a question whether the half-life of a team principal at Alpine is more or less than that of the second driver at Red bull now.
Andy
6th May 2025, 20:29
IMO that guy is a stain on the sport and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it.
Federico (@federicod)
6th May 2025, 20:30
It’s incredible, he managed to cheat too much for Formula 1 and still managed (cheated?) his way back to the sport.
rsp123 (@rsp123)
7th May 2025, 0:44
+1
Ferdi
7th May 2025, 9:17
I agree, but that is exactly why he fits in. Liberty and FIA love scripting and fabricating race results. He is literally their brother and best ally at the moment. Unfortunately, this makes perfect sense.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
7th May 2025, 12:41
Oakes is hardly squeaky-clean either, given Hitech’s history with dubious Russian cash.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
6th May 2025, 20:39
Welcome Mr. Briatore. While I don’t condone his actions in 2008, characters like him are needed in this corporatised F1.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
6th May 2025, 20:51
Yes, he did it his way regardless of what most people think of him. His success speaks for itself and maybe he’s got one more good stint with Alpine in him.
Effwon (@effwon)
6th May 2025, 21:31
“And I, for one, welcome our new Alpine overlord. I’d like to remind him as a trusted racefan.net commenter, I can be helpful in rounding up others to praise him online and vouch for his winning personality and totally legitimate successes.”
Riccard
6th May 2025, 21:53
His way, i.e. the crooked and dangerous way
How boring that all the other team principals seem to want safe and fair racing.
Maciek (@maciek)
7th May 2025, 6:03
Ah, yes, his success speaks for itself, while his duplicity says not a peep.
anon
7th May 2025, 8:37
@roadrunner whilst there are some posters, such as yourself, who are using the justification that “well, he made them successful in the past, so we can overlook his darker side”, even then, you could debate whether that success was really down to Briatore.
After all, during his stint there when the team was Benetton, how much was down to Flavio and how much of their success was down to Tom Walkinshaw and Ross Brawn? How much of Renault’s success in the mid 2000’s owes more to figures like James Allison?
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
7th May 2025, 15:46
@anon: Oh, I don’t overlook his darker side. It’s part of him as it was part of Senna, Schumacher, Verstappen and so many others. I don’t even like him, but I don’t think it does him justice to reduce him to a cheater and overlook his contribution to the success Benetton and Renault had.
It’s the job of a team principal to bring the chest pieces into place and keep the money rolling in. And he certainly did that well. Furthermore he wasn’t at all unpleasant to work with according to former employees (Herbert and Trulli might disagree though).
And honestly, Alpine did hit rock bottom. If anyone can turn them around it’s someone disruptive.
David BR (@david-br)
8th May 2025, 1:29
The problem is ‘cheating’ trivializes’ what they did. It’s not the fact they cheated (bent the rules) but did so by pressurizing their junior driver to crash on purpose. The levels of infamy involved in such a decision are staggering, really you have to be low-life of the worst kind to effectively compel a junior employee to do something (or lose their job) that potentially risks injury or worse to both himself and third parties.
There is absolutely no way Briatore should be anywhere near Formula 1. Especially as he never admitted fault or apologized.
I’m amazed still today that so many people don’t get this.
Mooa42
7th May 2025, 1:00
@MarkWebber
Flavio was your’s and Alonso’s manager wasn’t he? Probably enabled you to pass on some very good and bad insights to young Oscar?
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th May 2025, 8:10
Normally I don’t wish anyone harm but this cheater comes close…..
Just sell the team to parties who invest in the team.
Zach (@zakspeedf1team)
6th May 2025, 20:50
I’m not at all sad to see Oakes go, but having him replaced by Flav isn’t exactly great.
Electroball76
7th May 2025, 8:08
They should have replaced Oakes with Flavor Flav instead.
Zach (@zakspeedf1team)
7th May 2025, 8:24
Oh hell yes! I see it now “Flavor of F1 with Flavor Flav”, that would really do wonders for ‘The Show’ for Liberty!
Alesici
8th May 2025, 6:05
Flavor Flav has a bizarre love relationship with indycar’s Will Power for some reason – maybe his name alone. Truthfully. So he would definitely immediately fire Collaponto for Power.
CryptidBadger (@ninjabadger)
6th May 2025, 20:51
It has been 250- 0 days since Alpine team principal change.
PacificPR (@streydt)
6th May 2025, 20:59
Seemed like Oakes got the team in the right direction at the end of last year and some promising results this year. Maybe he is heading to a different team? or he is fed up with Briatore. Either way I doubt things will improve at Alpine..
Adam (@rocketpanda)
6th May 2025, 21:08
Terribly unserious team. Unable to honour contracts with drivers, a Renault team that isn’t going to be using a Renault, revolving door policy apparently not just limited to driver but team boss too… They have all the ingredients to be a great F1 team but seem determined to do everything to not be.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th May 2025, 21:12
A totally surprising news, which I don’t think anyone outside the team could see coming.
I’d be willing to bet the Doohan-Colapinto matter has something to do with his departure & that rather than leaving voluntarily, he was pushed to leave.
Riccard
6th May 2025, 21:55
It could be the opposite – leaving because his decisions as team boss and commitments he’d made to his drivers were overruled
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
7th May 2025, 0:58
If Doohan goes, I think this is almost certainly what will have happened. Oakes will have asked who’s in charge and they won’t have backed him. If he stays then it may be something else.
SteveP
7th May 2025, 18:04
@phil-f1-21
and Lo it was thus…
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th May 2025, 8:12
If Jack is replaced then you can almost be sure it was that. But Jack should sue the cheater as doing a bad job for him.
JoshAtTwo
6th May 2025, 21:35
My favorite memories of Flavio Briatore are of his interviews, where no one understands a word he’s saying, but everyone pretends that they do. I”ve always suspected that he’s drunk. Thumbs up :)
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th May 2025, 8:13
No it’s because nobody wants to talk to him.
chimaera2003 (@chimaera2003)
6th May 2025, 21:56
Dysfunctional organisations do dysfunctional things!
SteveR (@stever)
7th May 2025, 5:55
Welcome to America. I live there.
Edvaldo
6th May 2025, 22:12
Well, now Doohan is gone fore sure.
Paul (@frankjaeger)
6th May 2025, 22:35
Worst team in F1. Oliver seemed like a nice guy, perhaps too nice to be a TP, especially one with Flav lurking around. Would be very happy for Alpine to sell up and a Asian team to join the ranks
Tomcat173 (@tomcat173)
7th May 2025, 2:56
You’d think that Oakes had the position & responsibility of Team Principal, but Briatore is the one with the real power, despite only being an “advisor” to the team. No wonder the guy resigned.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
6th May 2025, 22:50
This team………when Piastri put out a statement denying he was racing for them, I thought it was a bold move for a kid who hadn’t even started a race. Now it looks like one of the best driver decisions in F1 history.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
6th May 2025, 23:59
@bernasaurus yeah I reckon Webber saw through everything there.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
7th May 2025, 2:56
Yes, I’m equally surprised it turned out he was right with that statement!
Tomcat173 (@tomcat173)
7th May 2025, 2:58
Talk about a sliding doors moment for Piastri. His career would’ve been very different if he didnt make the switch from Alpine to McLaren.
Nathan 86
6th May 2025, 23:57
Alonso back to Alpine next season then i reckon. Makes room for Max at AM. Alonso would never have left Alpine if Flavio were in charge.
Dane
7th May 2025, 4:55
As much as everyone thinks of Briatore as a villain, he’s the only one who ever brought any success to that team (except for a couple Raikkonen wins in the Lotus years). Hopefully this is the beginning of a new era for Alpine.
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th May 2025, 8:17
Maybe because he is a villain ….. there is a difference on after 2000 teams and those before that date. The rules and technology were affected and the teams became more professional.
SteveP
7th May 2025, 7:08
MBS heading the FIA, Briatore heading “Alpine”
What could possibly go wrong?
tielemst
7th May 2025, 8:14
A long a we have teams like this on the grid there really is no argument to block new teams, is there?
Bob C
7th May 2025, 8:29
Briatore has a track record of success in F1, and I guess success is “everything”, but to me it comes with a reputational cost.
I am not entirely certain about how the ownership of Alpine F1 is structured, but I really wonder if whoever it is are familiar with the saying that you are known by the company you choose to keep.
David
7th May 2025, 8:49
I don’t think this is about drivers. I think this is about future ownership.
My impression (accurate or otherwise) was that Oakes’ appointment was based on him being able to put new ownership together behind the scenes based on previous contacts through Hitech. That hasn’t happened, and perhaps Doohan’s name was one that was somehow related to the deal Alpine thought Oakes would be able to bring to the table.
Now Flavio has simply taken charge. Dodgy history notwithstanding, the man is a winner, and I actually think this will be positive for the team overall. And Colapinto will be an upgrade in the drivers seat.
Main aim though will be to find new owners. I simply don’t believe there will be an “Alpine-Mercedes” car on the grid in 2026. It will be run under a different name. Renault/Alpine’s involvement in the sport has been a failure for most of the last decade, I’m surprised they have stayed on the grid for so long, and through so many of the recent personnel changes.
Ferdi
7th May 2025, 9:13
I definitely do not have enough popcorn in house for this.. off to the store!
BenjaminS (@benihana)
7th May 2025, 17:49
I am just going to say that as a Frenchman, living in France I cannot be more bloody disappointed by Renault and all of its bloody history. For all of its success there is also a lot of crap that comes with it and this just becomes another example of it. I would trust the judgment of Oakes more than Britore.