Is Oakes leaving Alpine surprisingly? Not at all

Alpine proves itself once again as a graveyard for team principals. Oakes has been with the French squad since last August, and initially, it seemed like a perfect marriage. The friendly Brit is an open, approachable personality, someone who was beloved within the organization. But reportedly, there was one problem in carrying out his duties, namely Flavio Briatore.

The Italian (75) was appointed as the Executive Advisor to the Formula 1 team by Renault CEO Luca de Meo in May last year. Briatore was given an extensive mandate; he could decide who to recruit and who to dismiss. It was also Briatore who decided that Alpine would stop its own power unit for Formula 1 and become a customer team of Mercedes.

In short, these were all tasks and decisions that would normally be made by the team principal. Oliver Oakes, who reportedly did not always see eye to eye with Briatore. For example, it was the Italian who wanted to sideline Jack Doohan in favor of Franco Colapinto before the season started. However, this did not happen, partly because Oakes had confidence in the rookie.

Coincidentally or not, just the day before the news of Oakes' departure was made public, it was revealed that Alpine is considering replacing Doohan with Colapinto effective immediately. At this point, it is speculative, but it is conceivable that Oakes was not in favor of this and Briatore was - leading Oakes to draw his conclusions now.

GPblog understands that there was unrest within Alpine last weekend in Miami, and internally there was speculation that something was going to happen in the structure of the team leadership. Perhaps that is why Oakes decided to forego his traditional chat with the media after the Grand Prix in the American city. Asking him now is difficult, as besides the brief press release, the main characters are staying silent.

Alpine has decided not to comment further on the change of guard. It will surely continue in Imola, in just under two weeks. In any case, with Briatore now fully in power, no one will be surprised if within a few days a second press release comes out, announcing the appointment of Franco Colapinto as the second man alongside Pierre Gasly.