Alpine F1 team principal Oliver Oakes believes the team has “genuine reason” to be “optimistic” heading into the 2025 F1 season following a late surge in pace in the final six races of 2024.
The Enstone-based squad endured a rather anonymous season up until the United States GP in late October, after starting the season as the de-facto slowest team by a clear margin, a string of upgrades across the season leapt them above Sauber in terms of ultimate performance, but still lacked an edge until a major upgrade in Austin.
The car had an all-new floor along with changes to the engine cover and rear wing assembly, which propelled it from the fringes of the top-10 to regular points-scorer in the hands of Pierre Gasly, as Esteban Ocon struggled to adapt to the new parts.
Then came a freak, but well-deserved double podium finish in the heavily rain-affected São Paulo GP, which catapulted the team up to sixth place in the standings, ahead of Haas and VCARB.
With the pace constantly proving impressive, Gasly managed to end the season with very strong results, as he qualified third for the Las Vegas GP (before a catastrophic engine failure denied him on race day), and finished fifth and seventh in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, respectively.
Positivity for 2025 after late season gains
Speaking after the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Oakes said Alpine F1 has some genuine reasons to be optimistic about its chances in 2025 given the positive impact of its late-season developments, and reiterated the importance of having a well-balanced car that will work across a varied range of circuits in what could be a very tight season ahead:
“I think obviously the big overhaul we brought in in Austin has performed well. Between now and then we’ve brought a new front wing to Qatar, and I think they’ve all been really positive [developments].
“I think probably though like every team you’re always a little bit nervous over the winter going what steps is everyone going to make and also balancing resources for 2026 as well.
“But I think we have a genuine reason to be optimistic — I think those last few races we’ve definitely been having good performance in the car,” he said.
“I think some of that though as well, you have to be humble, [with] certain tracks, the characteristics of those and making sure — under my watch, we’ve already had some difficult weekends and some that were really good for the team and I think I’m really seeing that across 24 races – [that] you do have to have a well-balanced car as well.
“That’s going to be a big thing for next year.”
The field converging even further?
With the stable regulations ahead of next season, Oakes believes the tendency of even more grid convergence will lead to a very tough decision as to when to switch focus and development fully to the brand-new 2026 cars, which could lead to some wild swings of performance compared to 2024:
“I’d agree with that,” he said when asked about the grid converging even more closely next season. “I mean, definitely everyone’s getting closer and I think you really do see a sort of genuine swing track to track sometimes as well and I think the goal is to be as consistent as you can be.
“At the front it’s going to be really close, and I think also even the midfield.
“I guess the question then becomes who sort of switches off the tap and the focus early to focus on ’26, and I think that’s going to play a part as well as the season goes on.”
Not getting too comfortable
Although he insisted that there’s clear optimism in the Alpine camp, the Briton is well aware of the team avoiding complacency as it heads into next year, as it intends to put the lessons learned from an incredibly tough 2024 — for the most part – to good use in the final season of this regulation cycle, and, importantly, the final season of using its own factory engines before a switch to a customer Mercedes deal from 2026.
“I’m confident, I think we learned a lot this year and I think that’s important in the team, we know we’re not perfect, but I think we’re on a good footing for next year.
“I think this last run of races in the second half of the season — credit to everybody [in the team] — it does leave us optimistic.
“But [in] F1, you can never be comfortable either, can you?”
