Alpine Team Principal Oliver Oakes Quits After Just Ten Months In The Role 3log

Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes has resigned his position after less than a year leading the struggling team.

On Tuesday, Alpine released a statement which said Oakes had resigned with ‘immediate effect”.

Executive adviser Flavio Briatore will therefore take over Oakes’ duties, while continuing in his own role.

There has so far been no explanation for Oakes leaving. Alpine have said they will make no further comment, while Oakes has also declined to offer a reason for his departure.

According to reports, the decision was made by Oakes himself, with his resignation coming as a surprise to those within the team.

Oliver Oakes Resigns After Alpine Drop Jack Doohan For Colapinto 2t2648

Oakes ed Alpine from Hitech, which competes in the junior categories.

It was commonly believed that he had little real power within Alpine, with former Renault team boss Briatore thought to be running things behind the scenes.

Briatore spent 15 years in the F1 wilderness after being found guilty of fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix while in charge of Renault.

His return in July 2024 was thanks to Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo, with Renault owning the Alpine team.

Oakes’ resignation follows almost immediately after news broke that Alpine were replacing Australian rookie driver Jack Doohan after just six races.

Doohan had performed poorly, crashing on several occasions. The decision was therefore made to drop him in favour of reserve driver and former Williams driver Franco Colapinto.

Colapinto will be racing alongside teammate Pierre Gasly at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.

But while Doohan has been poor, not everyone agrees with replacing him so soon into his rookie season.

No details have emerged about why Oakes chose now to leave the team, but there is a possibility that he opposed the decision to drop Doohan.

Is Being Alpine Team Principal A Poisoned Chalice? 5q685k

Being team principal at Alpine seems to be one of the least secure jobs on the Formula 1 grid.

Oakes spent only 10 months in the role, ing in July after former principal Bruno Famin moved elsewhere within Renault Group.

Famin himself only replaced Otmar Szafnauer less than a year before his departure, while American former team boss Szafnauer spent just 17 months at the helm.

The team have been struggling for a number of years, finishing sixth in the constructors championship last year.

Next season, they will cancel their engine programme after almost 50 years, becoming a Mercedes customer team for the first time.

So far this year, Alpine sit ninth in the championship, with their best finish a seventh place for Pierre Gasly in Bahrain.