Alpine issue firm declaration ahead of major team change

As one of F1's newest team principals, Oliver Oakes is still learning the ropes when it comes to navigating the day-to-day running of an F1 squad.

The 37-year-old took over the reins at Alpine last year amid a dismal campaign for the French outfit. It was languishing towards the rear of the field, and satisfactory results were difficult to come by.

There was significant unrest at Alpine amid its early-season disappointment, which culminated in Bruno Famin's exit and the arrival of Oakes at the end of the summer break.

Having had the winter to oversee the operations, the Briton was excited by what he saw.

“It is nice to have a winter with the team, more from the side to see the other side of it,” Oakes exclusively told RacingNews365.

“When I joined in the summer, I got to see the first upgrade that gave us a good last third of the season, but it's very different to see a winter of the entire car coming together, everyone in the factory working to make that happen.

“That’s really good to see, and also exciting as well."

Oakes' team management before his Alpine role involved the formation of the successful Hitech GP team, working with drivers such as George Russell, Nikita Mazepin and Alex Palou in their journeys to F1 and IndyCar.

As he compared handling operations in F1 to his previous experiences, Oakes explained: “It's very different from the junior formulae in some ways. 

“You're making stuff, you’re buying stuff, things that you've designed and manufactured.

“Whereas in the junior series, it’s probably a bit crude to say, but you go and buy it from the usual supermarket of Taatus or Dallara. What is exciting about F1, it’s one of the last series in the world where you design and make everything yourself.

“But it’s not too dissimilar. You need everyone working together, you need a good plan. You probably have a few things on the way that you need to overcome as well. For everyone else who's been in F1 for a long time, it’s business as usual.

“For me, it was nice to see that happen, to see it as a different winter for the team from last year. I wasn't here, but we had a tricky winter and start to the season with a few problems.”

No resting on F1 laurels

Alpine has enjoyed a stronger start to the year compared to 12 months ago and scored its first points of the season last time out in Bahrain with Pierre Gasly.

But as Oakes acknowledged, there is no time for a celebratory pat on the back as it targets further steps forward.

“We need to keep improving,” Oakes stated. “I think there are two ways to do that. One is the quick things we can do at the moment, and then there's also the longer-term, strategic decisions.

“It's easy to say it, but we know we're a team which is not the smallest and not the biggest, so we need to be efficient.

“We also need to make sure we're focusing on the right things. But to be fair to Enstone, it was already a good team in a good place. We just missed a little bit of confidence and a little bit of direction. That's one of the things I'm proud of most - it is a good team, we just need to keep working hard.

“It was in a tricky place [last year], there was a lot of turnover in people. It probably wasn't the best atmosphere, the two drivers, there was some history there.

“From my side, all of that is in the past. I don't want to use the words 'cleaned up' because that makes it sound too easy. We just need to focus on ourselves and go racing. One thing we did since the summer break last year is just get back to the basics.

“That kind of takes away a little bit of how competitive and complex F1 is, which I would never be arrogant to say that.

“But we need to produce a good car, we need to have people who are proud to be part of the team and pushing. And also people feel that they have a voice and they can make things better as well. You can't just rest on your laurels in F1.”

Alpine to stick to its plan

While the F1 teams navigate the ongoing campaign, there is already an eye on next year and the challenge of constructing new cars under a fresh set of technical regulations.

The chassis and power units will undergo a significant change, marking the biggest rules shift since the 2014 hybrid engines were introduced.

Alpine is preparing for its own major change as it switches to Mercedes power units following Renault's decision to exit the sport as a power unit supplier.

Despite the challenges of introducing a brand new power unit to the chassis, Oakes is confident it will not pose any challenges for the Enstone-based squad.

“It's the topic at the moment, some teams have been quite vocal about managing what they are doing,” he said. 

“For us, it's a little trickier because we're changing engine supplier as well. But I think we can manage that quite well.  

“We need to stick to our plan and not get too carried away in the first part of the season. Everybody will look back in 2027 and 2028 and go, 'The last three years, how did you perform?'

“Were you good in 2025? Did you get it right for the regulation change? Did you balance all of that? 

“Last year, getting back to P6 was a really big result for the team. Some would say that was super important. But I also think the next couple of years are equally as important as well.”