This week’s news that Oliver Oakes had resigned as team principal of Alpine raised a few eyebrows, but was not perhaps the biggest shock amongst the Formula 1 fraternity.
Ever since one of F1’s most controversial renaissance men, Flavio Briatore, returned to Enstone last year as Executive Advisor, perhaps there was a feeling that the 75-year-old would one day return to the pit wall.
Perhaps Oakes’ public persona as a mild-mannered man of a youthful age exacerbated this, with many wondering if Briatore’s polarising and ‘big beast’ character might see him assume authority again.
The audible collective sigh of ‘yeah, right!’ echoed after Briatore insisted via a public statement that Oakes’ departure was of a personal nature, but, as it turned out of course, it was really true.
The arrest of his brother, and the subsequent rehashing of previous information of his dealings with the infamous Mazepin family, has cast a cloud over the team, which had already formed over the head of its now former race driver Jack Doohan.
Doohan saga a focal topic of Alpine early season
The starting pistol of gossip had already fired bullets into the rumour mill regarding the Australian’s future before the season had even begun, with Franco Colapinto being signed by Alpine as a reserve driver, and immediately receiving the public praise of Briatore, who called the Argentinian one of the team’s “most important assets.”
Oakes insisted Doohan would be given a fair shot, and perhaps the news of Liam Lawson’s reshuffle back to Racing Bulls in favour of Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull took some of the media heat off of him and the team.
Whilst there were mistakes, such as his FP1 shunt in Japan having left DRS open, and his race-ending first-lap crash in Miami – after having out-qualified Gasly for the first time – his pace was not terrible, and was able to get close to his experienced team-mate over one lap.
But when one of Colapinto’s personal sponsors was overheard on Argentinian television saying he would be back “in Imola,” the writing that was already on the wall had been freshened-up with a marker pen.
This was what led many to believe that the announcement Colapinto was now in an Alpine race seat – for at least the next five races – was the catalyst for Oakes’ departure.
But in either case, it leaves Briatore back in the position he first assumed in 1989.
From commercial guru to title-winning boss – the rise of Briatore
Having had no prior experience in motor racing, Briatore became Benetton team principal in 1989, having been the head of its commercial operations before. Previous criminal convictions in his pre-F1 years left him with a reputation for being a bit of a rogue, but his ruthless nous for running an F1 team quickly became apparent.
One of the first big examples of this was in 1991, stealing the recently-unearthed young talent by the name of Michael Schumacher from under the noses of the Jordan team, which had given the German his debut at the Belgian Grand Prix.
His public profile soared via Schumacher’s precocious talent, which lifted the Benetton to the top of the world in 1994, when he took his first Drivers’ Championship, amid longstanding allegations of cheating with the B194 car.
Schumacher followed this up with a second title the next year, before he stunned Briatore and F1 by joining Ferrari. Benetton never really recovered from the gap Schumacher left, and by the end of 1997, Briatore was replaced by the now-head of Motorsport UK, David Richards.
Four years later, however, Briatore was back at Enstone, replacing Rocco Benetton and taking over as team principal as the team transitioned to Renault. Despite outscoring Jarno Trulli, Briatore unceremoniously fired Jenson Button in favour of test driver Fernando Alonso, telling the protesting masses: “time will tell if I’m wrong.”
The rise, the fall and another rise – how one night in Singapore changed everything before dramatic return
11 years after becoming the cream of the crop with Schumacher, Briatore was back at the top as Alonso took the first of two Drivers’ titles in 2005, and, like Schumacher, backed it up with another the next year.
History repeated itself once more however, with Alonso leaving straight after, going to McLaren, but after a contentious year alongside Lewis Hamilton, the Spaniard was back in 2008, and his win at that year’s Singapore Grand Prix proved to be Briatore’s downfall.
After the second Renault of Nelson Piquet Jr crashed out of the race, the Safety Car was deployed, and Alonso, who had qualified 15th, utilised a strategic masterclass to pit and come through the chaos to take a memorable win.
But when Piquet later revealed, after being fired by the team, that he was instructed to crash in order to cause the Safety Car’s deployment to give Alonso this chance of victory, both Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds resigned, and Briatore was served with a lifetime ban from Formula 1.
This, however, was overturned less than a year later, but he remained out of the spotlight of the paddock. That was, until May last year.
After being courted by Renault’s CEO Luca de Meo, Briatore strolled through the doors at Enstone once again, now as an Executive Advisor, a position which is believed to give him the power of hire and fire within the organisation.
In fact, his presence was felt early on, as he culled 25 percent of the workforce in Oxfordshire, and then shut the doors on Renault’s Viry-Chatillon engine production base, instead opting for an engine deal with Mercedes in time for the forthcoming new regulations in 2026.
Having been recently praised by Gasly for being brave enough to “make changes” to put Alpine in a “better place,” it remains to be seen whether Briatore will continue as the de facto leader of the team until a replacement for Oakes is found, or whether that familiar mirthful yet controversial Italian figure will continue for a little while longer.
In either case, it seems that whatever he does and whatever others do to counteract it, you can’t keep Flavio Briatore down.
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No comment on the alleged Hitech Heist?