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‘Everything is possible’ – Alpine’s Briatore and Oakes on their plans to tempt Newey and revolutionise Enstone
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We got a glimpse into Alpine’s rebuild plans on Saturday morning at Zandvoort, when executive advisor Flavio Briatore gave his first media briefing since joining the team in June alongside his new Team Principal Oli Oakes, who himself has only been in the job for a few weeks – and it was punchy. Briatore was at his typical, no-nonsense best.
Clearly, the 74-year-old is loving being back at the helm of a team he’s guided to multiple World Championships in days gone by.
He’s got a big job on his hand – something he’s under no illusions about. The French manufacturer has had a tumultuous time of it over the last year or so, with almost all their senior staff departing the team during that period – while the squad started this season by locking out the back row in Bahrain.
READ MORE: Alpine announce further team changes as Flavio Briatore returns in Executive Advisor role
They’ve improved since then, hauling themselves back into the midfield, but behind the scenes –especially since Briatore came on board – it’s clear things are changing at quite a pace.
Briatore was Benetton Team Principal in their early 90s pomp
Briatore and Oakes on why Alpine dropped the ball
When CEO Laurent Rossi left Alpine last year, it triggered a domino effect, with Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, Sporting Director Alan Permane, Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry, Technical Director Matt Harman, Head of Aerodynamics Dirk de Beer and Director of Racing Expansion Projects Davide Brivio all leaving. And only last month, Team Principal Bruno Famin was moved off the F1 project to make way for Oakes.
“There was no management – I believe the problem of Alpine was this one,” says Briatore. “At one point, they chose a few wrong managers. The list of the wrong ones was quite long. We have no list about the good ones.”
Briatore also suggested that those who have managed Alpine previously in recent times didn’t spend enough time at Enstone, which is the team’s chassis base.
“It’s like this – it’s difficult to manage Enstone. It’s a big team, a big monster,” adds Briatore. “You need to be there. It’s very difficult to manage one team like Alpine from Paris. You need to have a daily presence.”
Briatore with Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo
Oakes intends to do that – and will have the shortest of commutes as he lives very close to the factory. “He has a house across the way, this is the reason I choose him,” jokes Briatore. Oakes laughs and adds: “It’s a special place Enstone, everyone knows that. It requires a lot of love, a lot of understanding…”
Oakes hasn’t had a chance to properly get his feet under the table and assess the project, especially given the factories were all closed for two weeks for the summer break – but he’s already encouraged from what he has seen and echoes Briatore’s comments that the way the team has been managed in recent times has stunted Alpine’s progress.
“Enstone has something which money can’t buy,” says Oakes. “It has a racing spirit, a racing history. You can’t help but go round and find that massive passion that makes it the place it should be. In terms of what it’s missing, I dare say it’s been mismanaged for quite a few years.
“It’s easy to point blame. We’ve done a lot of talking in the past. A bit frustrating, it’s not my style. We just have to get back to focusing on the racing. The people there – we have some amazing people there. It’s not the fault of the people, it’s the fault of the leadership before. I’m in a lucky position, it’s a great team. There’s lots of things to do. But it’s very simple, we need a better car, and we need to get everyone working together.”
It's been a rocky 2024 for Alpine
Briatore on why he chose Oakes
After two months in the job, Briatore determined that a leadership change was required to speed things up. Famin – who held the role for a year, having added it to his duties as an Alpine Motorsports Vice President, was moved aside. Briatore had a very short list of potential candidates and opted to only interview two options, with Oakes – a former racing driver who moved into management and founded Hitech Grand Prix – coming out on top.
“I knew at one point I needed to change the team principal,” says Briatore. “I wanted to go much quicker for the team. I interviewed two people. Somebody was talking about Oli. We met three or four times for a long time to understand if it was a good possibility to work together.
“In this situation, what you need is people with you who have the same ambition. He’s young. He’s one of the youngest principals ever in Formula 1. And the feeling as well. I talked with a lot of people, three or four potential team principals. I became convinced Oli was the right choice for the team, working with me and working with everybody together.”
He adds: ”Oli had enthusiasm; he’s young, he’s enthusiastic, he’s ambitious. He’s what we need in the team. To turn around this team, you need young people, you need people with character, patience for the job, the people who understand who are the good ones or the bad ones, the people [who] understand what is going on in the race, people who understand what’s going on in the factory. This is the principle. Oli, I believe, he has no experience at a big team like this one but the talent to be successful.”
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Briatore on Alpine’s prospects
Alpine currently sit eighth in the constructors’ championship, with a best result of ninth. It’s a far cry from 2022 when they finished fourth and looked like they were on the precipice of breaking the then top three. Briatore ran the Enstone team during its World Championship-winning years when they ran under the Benetton and then Renault banner – so he knows what it takes.
“I think to be realistic, we want to look for some podiums in 2027,” he says. “The situation we have is not the ideal situation. You know me guys, I tell you the truth – it is very difficult in this moment, because the competition is very hard. We have six or seven teams that are very good – it’s good for Formula 1 to have so many teams who have the possibility to win. The competition is tough.
READ MORE: Why Alpine are looking to change their works status and take a customer engine supply
"To be ready to beat this competition, we need to work hard, we need the right drivers, the right team, the right technical director, the right manager. You don’t need to have so many people as well. A team is a team with people working together."
This medium-term timeline and realistic assessment of where they are right now in the pecking order suggests that Alpine's leadership team at the Renault Group accept that it will take time to enhance the operation to make them competitive again.
Oli Oakes has been installed as Team Principal at Alpine
With that in mind, Oakes is focusing on step-by-step improvements rather than publicly setting himself year-on-year goals.
"We are in the situation we are in today for the last two or three years," says Oakes. "At the beginning of this year, you’ve seen the results. I think they’ve done a good job to try to regroup until now and add performance to the car.
"They’ve done a pretty decent job from there to now. Obviously we’re not where we want to be and we’ll just continue with that. There’s no long speeches or promises on that. You guys can judge me in a few years."
READ MORE: Sanchez identifies Alpine’s targets and objectives for second half of 2024
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Briatore on the engine situation
Renault are currently assessing whether or not to continue with their power unit programme – with Mercedes believed to be the leading contender if the French manufacturer opts to discontinue the F1 engine project at Viry.
Briatore says he has "no idea" what the latest is regarding the power unit plan as "this is the decision of the chairman of the Renault Group” (Luca de Meo). However he did comment on why the subject has even come up, pointing to the fact the current Renault power unit is bottom of the pile in terms of power output, behind Mercedes, Ferrari and RBPT-Honda.
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"The problem is the evidence," says Briatore. "The stuff with the engine was decided already by the management of Renault and for me, it’s fine. Our chairman decided it was fine. This was decided already before I arrived in the team."
Briatore and Alonso combined to give Team Enstone their last title in 2006
Briatore pointed to the success McLaren are having with a customer Mercedes power unit as a reason for looking at following suit.
"Look at McLaren at other teams," he says. "McLaren are not doing everything. If you want to win, you need the best of everything that is possible. My job is really to make the team in condition to win. Everything is possible to make sure all the important parts are competitive."
Briatore on the prospect of the team being sold
There have also been suggestions that Renault were considering selling the operation, but Briatore moved to shut that down immediately.
"No," he says. "There is nothing for sale. Everything, we buy. If there’s any opportunity, we’d buy another Formula 1 team. Some things are very clear. Luca de Meo never wants to sell the team. Question finito."
Briatore says Alpine are not for sale
De Meo is known to be a big supporter of Formula 1 and the manufacturer's involvement in the sport, and Briatore points to this passion as a reason why he doesn't believe the team is going anywhere.
"We have a big advantage as well because we have a chairman in Luca de Meo who is very enthusiastic about motor racing and very supportive even in this era with not wonderful results.
"He’s very passionate and we need to help him as well to be successful again, because Luca put a lot of effort, a lot of finance, a lot of time in with us and this is super. It’s the first time I’ve had such big support from Renault.
"For us, it’s really a mission to him because Renault and Alpine deserve to be more competitive."
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Briatore spoke of plans to evolve and refine the Enstone project, however he says that doesn't mean cutting jobs but rather getting everyone rowing in the same direction.
"I don’t know if we have many people in Enstone or not,” he says. “We don’t want to cut any jobs, we just want to have efficiency. The people who want to stay with us are welcome to stay. But we need everybody in the same line.
“We don’t want to cut jobs, we just want to have people with experience, who are working and sure they are working for a Formula 1 team – and performing. After that, we don’t want to fire anyone.”
He adds: "We need to clear up the house. You need the home clean to make sure everyone is working together. You need to motivate everyone."
Could Adrian Newey be enticed to the Alpine project?
Briatore on the prospect of signing Newey
Adrian Newey, F1’s greatest ever designer, is on the market after choosing to part ways with Red Bull. Ferrari were initially favourites to land him, however the chances of that happening have reduced dramatically in recent months.
That means he’s still available. Does Briatore want him?
“Who is that?! He’s too cheap for me,” jokes Briatore when Newey is brought up. “As well, you are in the market, you are in the business, you are talking people.
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“Alpine was a little bit in the corner, nobody was talking about Alpine anymore, you know what I mean? Now we are there, we have the finance, we have the support from the chairman, we have a big group behind us and should something happen that’s a good possibility we do it, as simple as that. But only if it’s good for the team.
“And then it’s not an ego trip, I take this engineer, I take this engineer, because one man is not changing the team; we have plenty of examples like that when people buy everything.
Bruno Famin has been moved off the F1 project
“You don’t buy the culture; the culture to win you don’t buy, you buy whatever you want. We have plenty of people who buy, buy, buy but the result is not really in proportion with what you buy.”
When asked if that means it’s not impossible, he replies: “Everything’s possible in life.”
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