In the summer of 2024, Oliver Oakes was appointed team principal of Alpine Formula 1 Team as Flavio Briatore and Luca de Meo made more changes. He was a replacement for Bruno Famin as he stepped back, now managing the reorganisation of the Viry-Chatillon power unit manufacturing facility.
Where does Oakes sit in the Alpine F1 Team chain?
Oakes is the founder of Hitech GP, a greatly successful junior category team proving his business capabilities, making him a great choice for Alpine’s team principal.
Overseeing Oakes in his new role is executive director of Alpine F1 Team, Flavio Briatore. Briatore has a strong history in Formula 1, all the way back into the 90s, overseeing Michael Schumacher’s first championships in Benetton. He also led Renault to success with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.
In an exclusive interview with Planet F1, Oakes told them that although Alpine F1 Team has no organisation chart and no power play, Briatore sits above everyone else.
Oakes states that the team of himself, Briatore and de Meo is transparent and smooth running, something he believes may have been previously missing within the team.
“I mean Flavio is above everyone.
“There’s no organisation chart, there’s no power play, it’s really transparent and I think probably that was something missing maybe before as well.”
Although stating there is no organisation chart, Oakes clearly believes he is the man on the ground for the team, whether at the track of factory, despite Briatore making appearances at most races, and occasionally at their factory in Enstone.
“From my side, I’m the man on the ground – whether that’s at the factory or here on track.
“But I think you can see Flavio is at most races. He’s at Enstone a couple of days a week as well.”
Success in the masses!
In Oakes’ eyes, taking a look at other successful Formula 1 teams over the years, they have all had strong and aligned leadership.
Looking at teams like McLaren and Racing Bulls, this dual leadership structure that Alpine seems to embody has worked well. Oakes believes this is and will continue to work well for the trio at Alpine.
“I guess if you look at teams in F1 that have been successful over the years, there’s been a really strong leadership and they’ve been really aligned.
“Our structure is no different now to a couple of other teams on the grid – there’s the three of us here, you’ve got Luca [de Meo] as CEO of the group, you’ve got Flavio [Briatore] as executive advisor, and me as team principal.
“I think, really, titles don’t mean much. It’s whether the three of you are aligned in the direction you’re going.”
The mentorship from Briatore
At almost double Oakes’ age, and with vast experience in Formula 1, Briatore serves as almost a mentor to Oakes.
He also looked at David Sanchez and Dave Greenwood as key players. Greenwood worked with Kimi Räikkönen as his Ferrari race engineer.
“I think having him with me helps to support that, because it’s a big job – it’s 900 odd people and 24 races.
“It’s not a one man show and we’ve also got David Sanchez as our technical director who joined just before me as well. We’ve announced Dave Greenwood as racing director.”
The ongoing comparisons between Oakes and Horner
Oakes shows many similarities between himself and Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner, both having racing backgrounds before switching to the business side of racing, and establishing teams. The Brit was once a Red Bull junior.
Other than the racing backgrounds, Oakes is the youngest team principal since 31-year-old Christian Horner starting in 2005.
Oakes continues to run Hitech GP today, and Horner created his team, Arden Motorsport, alongside his father, both these teams leading these men to where they are in Formula 1 today.
Arden Motorsport led Horner to his contacts with Helmut Marko who in turn recommended Horner as the perfect candidate to lead Red Bull Racing, to Red Bull Racing’s founder Dietrich Mateschitz.
Similarly, to Horner, Hitech GP caused Oakes to catch the attention of Flavio Briatore, who made the recommendation to Luca de Meo for Oakes as Alpine’s team principle.
“I think a lot of people always want to talk about the similarities between me and Christian, Helmut and Flavio.
“Probably there are some similarities and we’re different as well – what works somewhere, doesn’t always work somewhere else.”
