Alpine boss Oliver Oakes was quizzed on the surprise Formula 1 paddock return of Dmitry Mazepin during pre-season testing amid the Russian’s former links to the Hitech junior outfit.
Mazepin famously sponsored the Haas F1 team in 2021 through his company Uralkali and the Russian billionaire’s backing helped install his son Niita into a race seat.
However, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Haas parted company with the Mazepins with immediate effect and Uralkali’s owner remains under EU sanctions.
That doesn’t stop the Russian oligarch from visiting the F1 paddock with the correct credentials, but curiously nobody in Bahrain was able to account for how Mazepin gained entry into the paddock.
Mazepin made visits to Mercedes and Alpine but no F1 team had any knowledge of who handed the Russian a pass into the paddock, with a source relaying to ESPN: “Dmitry was on a personal visit. He has remained friends with many people in the Formula 1 family and was happy to see them in Bahrain.”
One of the people Mazepin bumped into in the F1 pre-season testing paddock was Oakes.
Mazepin was a major backer of Oakes’ Hitech outfit pre-EU sanctions and his son raced for the junior team.
Speculation suggests that Renault CEO Luca de Meo wants to offload his Alpine F1 team to interested parties and that advisor Flavio Briatore’s job is to facilitate a sale.
Alpine Team Principal Oakes was quizzed on the curious nature of Mazepin’s paddock visit.
“Yes. I’ve said hello to him, I haven’t met him,” he told select media including Motorsport Week.
“Yes, he’s a friend of mine, yes I used to be together with him in Hitech.
“He was here catching up with another friend of his.
“It’s nice to see him. I’m not going to go into that, the world’s a crazy place”.
Alpine is not for sale
Time and again, de Meo, Briatore and Oakes have had to refute the notion that the Alpine F1 team could be up for sale.
Fuelling that speculation was the team’s decision to scrap its works engine development in Viry-Chatillon in favour of becoming a Mercedes power unit customer from 2026 onwards.
Slicing the Viry element out of the Anglo-French equation makes a sale of the team simpler, but the line from members of the team is that it isn’t going to be happening.
Speaking at last year’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Oakes said “I know everybody likes to write that [de Meo] wants to sell the team, which isn’t true.
“He’s always been very firm that he’s in F1 for the long term.
“You can see really how passionate he is about this project. I’m grateful to have him.”
Briatore has been even more adamant that Alpine isn’t for sale.
Speaking to Autosport last year, Briatore said “No, there is nothing for sale.
“Everything, we buy. If we had the opportunity, we [would] buy another one team and I put a managing director in.
“Something is very clear. Luca de Meo never wants to sell the team. Question finito.”
