According to reports, Alpine is poised to remove Bruno Famin as Team Principal of its Formula 1 outfit and replace him with Hitech founder Oliver Oakes.
Famin replaced Otmar Szafanauer in an interim capacity 12 months ago after the conclusion of the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix and the Frenchman took the role on a permanent basis at the start of this season.
His duties as Team Principal were in addition to his roles as Vice-President of Alpine Motorsport and lead of the Viry engine division.
However, after a tumultuous 2024 campaign, change is afoot at Alpine and in a big way.
The tide began to change at the Anglo-French outfit when Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo brought Flavio Briatore back to the fold as an Advisor.
Briatore has sought to revolutionise the Alpine operation, starting with the alleged yet extraordinary decision to drop the underperforming Renault power units produced at Viry in favour of becoming a Mercedes customer.
Now, according to RacingNews365, Famin could be dropped as Team Principal and from a Renault Board decision, it wouldn’t come as a complete shock.
An overweight and uncompetitive car saw Alpine start the 2024 campaign at the back of the field, and despite a technical restructure and improvement in form, both overseen by Famin, the team is in a worse state at this year’s Belgian GP compared to last term.
Alpine currently lies eighth in the Constructors’ standings with nine points, compared to 47 points when Szafnauer was dismissed last year.
If Famin’s dismissal proves true, The Race reports that his replacement will come in the form of Hitech founder Oakes.
The Englishman, whose junior Formula outfit is based at Silverstone (not a far stretch from Mercedes in Brackley or Alpine’s Enstone UK base) was a racing driver in his own right, forming a part of Red Bull’s Junior programme following world title success in karting.
Oakes founded Hitech in 2015 and the team is present on the Formula 4, F3 and F2 steps up the Formula 1 Junior ladder.
Moreover, Oakes’ Hitech launched a bid to join the F1 grid when the FIA’s tender process opened in early 2023 but was unsuccessful.
Renault is no stranger to offloading its Formula 1 asset when times are tough and with the Viry’s F1 power unit operation set to shutdown, Oakes’ appointment as Team Principal could be the first step to the French marque offloading the Alpine squad in its entirety.
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