Oakes discusses 'trepidation' over becoming third Alpine Team Principal in 18 months

Oliver Oakes has opened up on whether he felt any trepidation over becoming the third Team Principal at Alpine in the space of 18 months, with the Briton admitting that he had to ask himself some “personal questions” when assessing whether to take the job or not.

Oakes joined the squad following F1’s summer break, weeks after Bruno Famin confirmed during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend that he would step down from the role – a position he took on following the exit of Otmar Szafnauer, which incidentally had occurred one year earlier when Formula 1 raced at Spa-Francorchamps.

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The arrival of Oakes marked one of several changes at the Enstone outfit across recent months, with a technical restructure having taken place earlier in the year that saw David Sanchez appointed as Executive Technical Director while Flavio Briatore became Executive Advisor in July.

Speaking during an appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Oakes was quizzed on whether he experienced any apprehension at becoming the third Team Principal at Alpine in that relatively short timeframe.

“I wouldn't say there was trepidation about the revolving door,” he explained to host Tom Clarkson. “I guess my trepidation was sort of on a personal level that I've got a young family, a supportive wife, so I'm lucky on that side.

“I think everyone knows I have my own Hitech team in junior categories that I've built and it was hard to – I wouldn't say to leave that, because it’s still my company and I care about them and they're strong without me – but I think my trepidations are more around the life choice than really the revolving door.

“Maybe you could say I'm naive, but I really believe that it's a privilege and a really big responsibility to be a Team Principal. You don't come into it worried about the revolving door. You should come into it with the responsibility.”

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Oakes went on to explain the questions that he put to himself when considering whether to take the role, saying: “There's 900-odd people who depend on you to give them leadership and support.

“I think that was the first thing for me. Am I able to bring something to this team that perhaps wasn't here before? And would it click? A lot of it is about chemistry. It's not just money, it's not just the politics.

“It's really about the culture within the team and what the leadership understands about that and what they bring to it. For me, they were the main sort of personal questions in my head.”

In terms of the various changes that had happened at the team before he joined, Oakes acknowledged that this was also something he had given thought to.

“It wasn't lost on me what had gone on before here,” the team boss said. “Otmar did a podcast where he was quite open about some of the issues he faced, but that wasn't a concern for me because I'd had a really open conversation with Luca [de Meo] before I took the job, and obviously with Flavio.

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“All of that stuff, that’s just part of the job, you’ve just got to make all of that work and get everyone working together as a team. It was more, genuinely, did I believe in the project?

“You don't want to just do F1 just to be a number, to be one of 10 Team Principals. You want to do it because you want to make a difference and I wouldn't have accepted it if I genuinely just thought it was a token job.”

Alpine ended the 2024 season in sixth place of the constructors' championship, marking quite a turnaround following a challenging start to the campaign.