Team principal Oakes leaves Alpine after 10 months

Oliver Oakes, the head of the Alpine team, left the position less than a year after being hired.

Oakes resigned, according to a statement from Alpine on Tuesday, and the team “accepted his resignation with immediate effect.”

The team informed the team that Flavio Briatore would continue to serve as Oakes’ executive adviser and would now also perform the duties he had previously performed.

Oakes’ departure was not explained in any way. Oakes declined to comment when contacted, and the team stated no further comment would be made.

Oakes’ decision to leave was confirmed by a source, according to a source. Other team members claimed that it surprised them.

Oakes, who left his Hitech team in Alpine to work in the junior division, was widely perceived as having little leadership at the team, with Briatore, the former Renault team manager, acting as the real controlling force.

Luca de Meo, the head of Renault Group, orchestrated Briatore’s contentious return to F1 as team leader 15 years after he was found guilty of fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Oakes’ departure comes just one day after it became known that Alpine were set to replace Australian Jack Doohan with Argentine ex-Whitney driver Franco Colapinto after only six races this year.

After Alpine, who are owned by Renault, removed their former team principal Bruno Famin and placed him elsewhere in the business, Oakes was appointed in July of last year.

And it continues a turbulent few years at the team, with senior management facing a stalemate amid Renault’s factory team’s run of disappointing outcomes.

Renault also made the decision to stop its F1 engine program, which had been in operation since 1977 with only a few brief rests, last year. Next season, Alpine will use Mercedes engines.

After replacing Otmar Szafnauer in July 2023, Famin assumed the position of team manager for less than a year. Only 17 months were spent on the American.

Laurent Rossi, the chief executive officer of Alpine, was also fired shortly before Szafnauer’s departure. He had only been employed by the business for two and a half years.

With a quarter of the current season over, Alpine finished sixth in the constructors’ championship last year.