Alpine has confirmed Oliver Oakes will take over from Bruno Famin in charge of its Formula 1 team at the end of August.
Oakes, 36, will become the youngest current principal of a Formula 1 team. The former racing driver currently runs Hitech, which he founded in 2015, and now competes in Formula 2, Formula 3, GB3 and British Formula 4.He will report to Renault CEO Luca de Meo. “It is a pleasure to welcome Oli to the team and for him to become one of the youngest team principals that this sport has ever seen,” he said.
“This team is being built for future success and this is highlighted by Oli’s appointment in a senior role.”
Alpine has endured a difficult start to the 2024 season and lies eighth in the championship. Bruno Famin, who took over as team principal a year ago, confirmed last week he is standing down as the team considers abandoning plans to build its own power unit for 2026.
Oakes said he is “extremely grateful to Luca de Meo and Flavio Briatore for this opportunity to lead BWT Alpine F1 Team back to competitiveness. The team has talented people and excellent resources at its core, and I am confident that we can accomplish a great deal together during the remainder of this season and the longer term. I look forward to getting started after the summer break.”
He will be Alpine’s fifth different team principal since Renault rebranded its works team at the beginning of 2021. Cyril Abiteboul was replaced by Davide Brivio that year, before the team hired Otmar Szafnauer the following season. The team’s management replaced Szafnauer with Famin 12 months ago.
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Oakes won the World Karting Championship in 2005 and joined Red Bull’s young driver programme the following year. He ended his driving career in 2009 after competing in Formula Renault Eurocup and British Formula 3, then went into driver coaching.
That led Oakes to set up his own junior single-seater team in 2015 under the name Hitech. The following year his team took George Russell to third place in the European Formula 3 championship, behind the dominant Prema cars of Lance Stroll and Maximilian Guenther.
Oakes also ran a car for Nikita Mazepin, whose father Dmitri’s company Uralkali invested in the team. Mazepin returned to Hitech when the team entered Formula 2 in 2020, the year before he graduated to F1. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led to sanctions being imposed on the Mazepins and Hitech terminated its Uralkali deal.
Other drivers to have raced for Hitech include Liam Lawson, who made his F1 debut last year, plus IndyCar champion Alex Palou and his rivals Marcus Armstrong and Rinus VeeKay. Among their current drivers is former Mercedes junior Paul Aron, who is in contention for the F2 title.
In 2022 Oakes attracted criticism when he refused to drop Juri Vips from his F2 driver roster after he used a racial slur. Vips’ language cost him his pace on Red Bull’s junior team and F2 issued a statement saying Oakes’ decision to keep him in the series was “not one we would have taken”.
Last year Hitech responded to the FIA’s request for applications to join the Formula 1 grid after Oakes attracted investment from one of the wealthiest people in Kazakhstan. He sold a 25% stake in the company to Kazakhstani businessman Vladimir Kim. However the FIA turned down Hitech’s application, approving Andretti instead, though Formula One Management has refused to grant them a place on the grid.
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Jere (@jerejj)
31st July 2024, 10:46
I could see him getting the nod simply because he seemed the most likely successor from the get-go.
His appointment could even impact the team’s second driver choice with his Hitech team driver Paul Aron possibly getting the team’s remaining 2025 drive over Jack Doohan & co., depending on super license points situation.
Nick T.
31st July 2024, 12:03
I’d love to see Aaron get the nod. It’s telling that, despite being the best looking driver in F2 right now, he gets a tiny amount of press compared to drivers not doing half as well. Likely a product of him not being part of an F1 junior program and coming from the tiny country of Estonia.
Love Estonia, BTW. It’d be great to see them with a driver.
Miane
31st July 2024, 17:34
Aron raced for a winning team all his career and never managed to win a championship (not even close). I don’t know why he’s doing so good in F2, but he’s above average at most. Bortoleto or Hadjar looks way more promissing.
anon
31st July 2024, 21:54
Nick T., the argument that Aron was “not being part of an F1 junior program” fails given Aron used to be part of Mercedes’s junior team up until the end of last year.
The reason for the lack of press seems to be that most people in junior series seem to think of him as a consistent driver, but also not really put in any distinguishing performances that you could say much about.
As Miane notes, Aron has not won any junior championships during his career, or even been the leading driver in a championship at any point during his junior career. He’s not even necessarily always been the best driver within his own team either – for example, during his Formula 3 campaign in 2023, his team mate Zak O’Sullivan finished ahead of him in that championship.
Similarly, in series such as Formula 3, he was again fairly consistent in terms of qualifying position, but also never qualified on pole at any point during that season (i.e. reasonably fast, but never the fastest at any particular venue). It was a similar theme with his performance in race trim over longer stints – consistent, but pretty much the middle of the pack in terms of his pace.
Simon
31st July 2024, 23:52
@jerejj
Link? Or yet another of your “oh, yeah I always thought that would happen”?
Only saying this after the event has happened?
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
1st August 2024, 7:02
Link?
Oooh oooh I got it right in this article!
Or I already read it somewhere.
https://www.racefans.net/2024/07/25/alpines-new-look-car-and-new-motorhome-first-pictures-from-the-belgian-gp-weekend/
GeeMac (@geemac)
31st July 2024, 11:40
Seeing as Hitech have aspirations to enter F1 and Renault’s actions all point to a sale of the Alpine F1 team, does this mean Renault are selling Alpine to Hitech?
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
31st July 2024, 12:03
More likely Hitech being sold to someone else, as Mr Oakes is leveling up
Neil (@neilosjames)
31st July 2024, 22:32
Probably a wise move. Half-decent but not especially good, British former racing drivers who set up their own teams after hanging up their helmets have a decent record as team principals when appointed in their thirties.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
1st August 2024, 14:47
Yes, this reminded me straight away of Arden and Christian Horner. Then there’s Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, does Paul Stewart count? Not Eddie Jordan – he was slightly older and more Irish.
Electroball76
3rd August 2024, 14:41
36?! Young whipper-snapper probably spends his whole time doing TikToks on the w.w.w., eating gummy bears and playing Nintendo. Kids these days..