William Oakes, one of the Directors of the Hitech GP team was arrested for “transferring criminal property” earlier this month. Oakes was caught in Silverstone Park with large amounts of cash and has been made to appear before the Northampton Magistrates’ Court.
As things stand, he is still in custody. Hitech GP is the feeder series team that competes in the lower formulas and was run by former Alpine team principal, Oliver Oakes—who is the other director alongside William.
William is in fact Oakes‘ brother and the latter’s resignation from the Enstone-based team has come just days after William’s arrest.
A statement from the Metropolitan Police reads, “William Oakes, 31 (30.12.1993) of Rugby was charged with transferring criminal property on Friday, 2 May after he was stopped in the Silverstone Park area in Northamptonshire on Thursday, 1 May 2025 in possession of a large amount of cash.”
There are strong suggestions that there might also be some involvement from the Mazepin family. In fact, former F1 driver Nikita Mazepin’s father, Dmitry Mazepin was a 75% stakeholder in the Hitech GP outfit—a team for which his son raced until 2020 in F3 and F2 before his debut for Haas in 2021.
But he sold his stake in the team to Oakes just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the consequent sanctions imposed by the UK and the United States of America.
this article from the telegraph about oliver oakes resignation/william oakes arrest.. pic.twitter.com/MFH03Z4WEU
— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) May 8, 2025
In the beginning, it was speculated that Oakes’ resignation from Alpine was a power tussle emerging after the decision was taken to sack Jack Doohan after just six races into his rookie F1 season.
Flavio Briatore was announced as the interim team principal, and former Williams driver, Franco Colapinto was drafted into the second race seat alongside Pierre Gasly on a five-race contract.
However, it might be that his brother’s arrest is the reason why Oakes decided to step away from the team principal role with the Enstone-based team. Briatore himself came onto social media to clarify the rumors floating around about Oakes’ alleged sacking.
“A lot has been said in the past 24 hours incorrectly associating the decision of Oli resigning to an alleged disagreement or that we shared different views. This is completely false and far from the truth. We respect Oli’s request to resign and have therefore accepted his resignation. The reasons are not related to the team and are of a personal nature,” he wrote on Instagram.
The latest reports emerging from this story suggest that Oakes has also been brought in for questioning. As of now, the former Alpine boss has not released a statement nor spoken to the media as this story keeps developing.
