Bruno Famin recently stepped away from his role as Alpine’s team principal after the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. The man who Alpine has chosen to replace Famin is former British racing driver Oliver Oakes.
Oliver Oakes was born in Norfolk, England on January 11, 1988, to Billy Oakes, who is the founder and owner of the former Formula Renault and British F3 team Eurotek Motorsport. Oliver Oakes began karting at the age of four and also went on to become a British Open Champion twice by the age of 12.
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Perhaps his biggest achievement came in 2005 when he won the world karting championship that year. Soon after, Red Bull drafted him into their young drivers’ programme which included the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Jaime Alguersuari, and Sébastien Buemi.
However, since Oliver Oakes’ racing career was not the most promising, he decided to shift to entrepreneurship and set up his own racing team called Team Oakes Racing. He founded this team back in 2011 and signed several well-known drivers such as Callum Ilott and Nikita Mazepin.
Soon after, Oliver Oakes also founded the Hitech GP team and led them from 2015 until recently. The Hitech GP team competes in F2 and F3. While the 36-year-old has previous management experience, managing an F1 team is likely to pose a whole new challenge for him.
Will managing Alpine prove to be too much for Oliver Oakes?
Alpine is currently facing an incredible amount of challenges. Perhaps the biggest one is regarding the team’s higher management. With several leading figures having joined rival teams, Oakes’ major responsibility will be to stop the engineers’ exodus.
This exodus began last year after Otmar Szafnauer left his role as Alpine’s team principal. Along with the Romanian, other leading figures such as Laurent Rossi, Alan Permane, and Pat Fry left the team soon after.
However, that exodus of engineers has not stopped this year. Bob Bell left the team earlier this year and before him, the likes of Davide Brivio, Matt Harman and Dirk de Beer also left.
Meanwhile, the second biggest challenge that Oakes will face while managing Alpine will be to improve the car’s performance. It has been several seasons now since Alpine have been struggling to get out of the midfield battle and fight the top teams for podiums and possibly also wins.
However, the challenges for Oakes will not end just there. The 36-year-old will also need to help the team prepare themselves for the new regulations that will be introduced in 2026.
Over the past several weeks, there have been reports that Alpine is considering becoming a customer team and is no longer keen on using their own Renault engines. Some reports stated that the French outfit are considering signing a deal with Mercedes, who have had a long history of success when it comes to producing strong engines.
Last but not least, Oakes will also need to help Alpine find Esteban Ocon’s replacement. With Carlos Sainz recently confirming that he will join Williams, the French team is left with very few options to replace the Frenchman.
