Alpine's new team principal - the next Christian Horner?

Recently-appointed Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes came into the role under unusual circumstances.

Confirmed just ahead of F1's annual summer shutdown, the founder of junior category outfit Hitech GP had two "hot-potato topics" immediately to deal with, as he put it to RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview.

Mid-season management changes are still unconventional for F1, and the issues in his inbox - signing a second driver for 2025 and Renault's decision to step away from power unit manufacturing - afforded him little time to get accustomed to his new surroundings before diving straight in at the deep end.

"I think in some ways it's maybe better though," Oakes mused when considering his start to life at Alpine. "Obviously it's odd, first day of school straight after the [summer] shutdown."

Oakes was able to visit Enstone prior to the two-week mandated break for a day to meet the team and get organised but when the team returned in late August it was directly into the Zandvoort-Monza double-header and the subsequent trips to Baku and Singapore.

"There's sort of good and bad [to starting midway through the year], he added. "In some ways, when you have a winter, you probably got more time.

"But in the other ways, coming in, like I did, just straight into it, both at the factory and trackside, you get up to speed quicker... in terms of just knowing how everything operates, the processes, the people, just getting stuck in."

Laying the foundations

Oakes confesses he does not remember exactly when he was first approached for the role, but estimates it was around a couple of months before it was announced he would replace Bruno Famin.

And whilst he has garnered extensive experience in the F1 support paddock, Oakes admits heading up a team at the highest level was not something he knowingly set out to achieve.

When asked if it was something he had always wanted, he replied: "Not really. In the sense that I had my driving career. I then founded my Hitech team, [running] many junior drivers for F1 teams, I've worked with them a bit on different projects, collaborating.

"But I wouldn't say it was something that I set out to do or to happen, but I think life's like that."

However, over the past two years, Oakes' career trajectory has only been heading in one direction.

When the FIA opened the tender to extend the F1 grid past the 10 existing teams that fill the paddock, Hitech GP was one of the applicants to submit an expression of interest.

The team was not invited to progress to the final stage, where Andretti's highly publicised bid ultimately faltered, but when rumours that Red Bull was looking to sell RB emerged, Oakes and Hitech were again put front and centre.

"The last 18 months, two years, different opportunities reared their head," he acknowledged. "This one [Alpine], I just felt was right.

"Right timing in that my Hitech team was very strong, very stable. The leadership team there knows what they're doing.

"And the fact that Enstone is a great place, and being able to, dare I say, turn something around with the right support behind you is also important."

The next Christian Horner?

At 36, Oakes is the second-youngest team principal in F1 history after Christian Horner, who is still at the helm of Red Bull nearly two decides later.

Despite his age, Oakes is unassuming and remarkably level-headed about his early ascension to the top of the single-seater pyramid, given the size of the task awaiting him.

"My wife was giving me a bit of stick over this," he laughed. "She was like, 'You should be jumping at that!'

"I was flattered because, at the end of the day, it's a privilege. But also, it's a responsibility.

"I think I was probably quite unemotional because I knew the job at hand. The team has had a difficult time. It is a big job."

Nevertheless, Oakes concedes he came to a decision quickly, adding: "It didn't take me long to decide just simply because I do believe in Enstone, and I believe in the potential the team has.

"Whether that's the people, the culture. But also, it sounds arrogant saying it about yourself, [but] what you could bring to unlock all of that and hopefully push it forward as well."

Forming the trident

Together with Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault, and Flavio Briatore, who was brought in to Alpine as an executive advisor earlier in the season, Oakes forms a trident management structure spearheading the team.

The latter was team principal during its championship-winning days as Benetton and Renault, something that has helped inform the expectations set in place.

"With Flavio, he's very emotionally attached to Enstone, which is great," pondered Oakes. "He wants to see the team come back.

"He was very clear of, 'If you're running an F1 team, it's a full commitment, and it's a big privilege to lead a team'.

"It's 1,000 people. It's got a rich history and the place does deserve better. We have to go out there and earn that and produce a better car."

Alpine in a 'good position'

His appointment may appear a striking show of faith by De Meo and Briatore, but Oakes feels he was ready for the step up into F1.

"The past couple of years, the opportunities that have been offered to me, they're all very similar," he reflected. "So it wasn't out of the blue. I definitely felt ready in terms of running a team."

However, timing was a key consideration, as was weighing up the type of environment he wanted to walk into, things Oakes says were "factors" he paid attention to, highlighting the balance between the time of year and how established Alpine is compared to other opportunities.

"In reality, it didn't take much thinking on the whole topic," he said. "It's whether you believe you can do it or you can't.

"Hopefully I'm right... I believe we have, not all the parts of the puzzle, but most of them already. It isn't that simple, because F1's complex, but I think we're in a good position.

"It just does take time. That's the biggest thing in F1. You have to have patience, a clear approach, and this team probably has missed that a little before.

"That doesn't mean there's anything magic in that. It's just we've got to produce a better car and go racing properly. There's lots of things that go into that."

Front foot forward

Alpine's recent history has been marred by instability, a seeming lack of coherent strategy, and multiple unfulfilled five-year plans since the Renault team was re-born in 2016.

Much of that has come to a head in the past two years, with former team principal Otmar Szafnauer mutually agreeing to part ways with the team at last season's Belgian Grand Prix only for his replacement to move on within 12 months.

Those incidents have distracted from on-track progress and painted a picture of dysfunction. Unsurprisingly, Alpine has been on the receiving end of its fair share of poor publicity, with high-profile gaffs such as the infamous Piasco doing little to change the prevailing narrative engulfing the team.

However, Oakes does not feel all the negative coverage is completely just, stating: "Some of it is fair and some of it is unfair. Always in any situation, there are two pictures. The truth is normally a mixture of both."

Regardless of what has come before, Oakes' gaze is fixed on the future and what he can build alongside De Meo and Briatore.

"I'm a big believer that the past is the past," he added. "We need to now just be front-foot forward. What maybe helps today and what will be different going forward, the next few years, is there's a really strong alignment at the top between Luca, Flavio and myself.

"If you look at any F1 team that's been successful, normally you've seen that there are two or three people at the helm who are very aligned. Whether that's the owner and his management, whether it's the owner, [who] owns the team and runs it himself.

"That's really important, it was an important part for me, why I chose this project to lead, was having that support from Luca and Flavio and knowing how vested they are in the team."