Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes defended his team’s expanded roster of drivers, which now includes not only veteran Pierre Gasly and rookie Jack Doohan, but three reserve drivers in Formula 2 contender Paul Aron, highly touted 2024 Williams fill-in Franco Colapinto and 2022 and 2023 WEC co-champion Ryo Hirakawa. The addition of Colapinto has drawn particular scrutiny, coming on the heels of the revelation that Doohan’s contract is only guaranteed for the first five races of the 2025 season.
Options further down the line
Speaking with James Allen on the James Allen on F1 podcast, Oakes insisted that the additions of Aron, Colapinto, Doohan, and Hirakawa are part of the long-term strategy at Alpine.
“I think the intention there isn’t to put [pressure] on his shoulders. It’s genuinely to give the team options further down the line. And for me, F1 is fine margins. There’s a load of people who are depending on a driver to deliver each weekend, and we need to make sure we’ve got the best drivers in the race car, not just now, but also in the future.
“For us as a team, it’s great to have that roster of two young drivers in Paul and Franco there waiting in the wings because it’s not just about 2025. 2026 [and] 2027 is around the corner, and it’s hard in F1 to plan what’s going to happen and what drivers you’re going to have to go in the car.“
Colapinto “made a strong impression”
Oakes did levy criticism at “keyboard warriors” who criticized the initial performance for Alpine of Doohan in qualifying last and finishing 15th at the season finale in Abu Dhabi. At the same time, he praised the performance of Colapinto, who replaced the struggling Logan Sargeant mid-season at Williams, and tempered concerns that arose as his early speed gave way to mistakes and crashes in the final races.
“I think Franco made a great first impression with Williams. I think it was clear to see that he probably tried a bit too hard at the end there. How much of that was the situation he was in, where he didn’t have a seat confirmed and was trying to over-impress, and how much of that was a compromise on parts on the car, that’s hard to calculate. But I think the crux is he made a strong impression with the speed he showed.“
