Karting world champion, former Red Bull junior and now following in the footsteps of Christian Horner? This has been the career to date of new Alpine team boss Oliver Oakes
Oliver Oakes has been appointed as Alpine’s new team principal, closing the revolving door in the management of the Enstone and Viry-based racing team once again. He is the third man to hold this post since the start of last season, following Otmar Szafnauer and Bruno Famin. The latter resigned from his position after less than a year
The position of team principal is by no means the only one to have undergone changes in the last three years, as the top management at Alpine seems to change every year, with former team principal Flavio Briatore also taking on an advisory role in recent months.
However, his presence in the press release announcing Oakes’ appointment suggests that he is far more integrated than you might expect. With Oakes at the helm and Mercedes engines set to replace Renault’s in-house engines in the coming years, the question is who is the man to turn things around?
Oakes: Once a junior driver at Red Bull
Oakes was surrounded by racing from an early age, as his father was involved with the sport. Billy Oakes was the founder and owner of former Formula Renault and British F3 racing team Eurotek Motorsport.
At the age of 12, Oakes was a two-time British Open Karting Champion and at 17 he became World Karting Champion, beating Valtteri Bottas, Jules Bianchi and Edoardo Mortara. This led to him being accepted into Red Bull’s illustrious young driver program.
At that time, Oakes would have raced at Red Bull alongside former Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel and WEC champions Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi. A move to Formula BMW followed, where Oakes took pole position and victory in his first race and was nominated for the then McLaren Autosport BRDC Award [now the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award] with a sixth place finish at the end of the season.
However, although he moved into British Formula 3 and GP3, his racing career never really blossomed and he retired from racing to embark on what is still a successful career as a manager.
Start at Hitech GP
Oakes’ tenure at the helm of Hitech is perhaps the best known part of his management career, but he was in charge of some of the best young talent in motorsport much earlier.
Team Oakes Racing was founded in 2011 to gain a foothold in karting. Callum Illot and Marcus Armstrong are the best-known drivers to have joined the team. Nikita Mazepin – who would later forge a much closer relationship with Oakes at Hitech – and Clement Novalak also drove for the team.
Hitech Racing was renamed Hitech Grand Prix in 2015 under Oakes’ management and over the years received financial support from Nikita Mazepin’s father Dmitry and his company Uralkali, which came under fire in 2021 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the EU sanctions against the Mazepins.
However, that aside, the team has underlined its status as the linchpin of the junior formula, claiming victories and challenging for championships in almost every series they have entered.
The highlight of the season so far has been Paul Aron’s third place in the Formula 2 standings after the Estonian’s consistent performance in the first half of the season. In Formula 3, Luke Browning is just six points behind in third place ahead of the final race of the season in Monza.
Oliver Oakes in Formula 1
For Oakes, the step into Formula 1 with Alpine is not his first look at the championship. Hitech was among the hopeful teams bidding for the 11th spot when the FIA opened the Expression of Interest process last year, although the team did not make it past the governing body’s initial application stage. Andretti was the only team to do so, but was rejected by Formula 1.
However, there is no doubting Oakes’ ability to move an organization forward. With Briatore in tandem, Oakes will be able to focus solely on Alpine’s on-track successes at a time when drivers are particularly frustrated with the current situation.
At the Belgian Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly urged the team to make fewer mistakes after three problems in as many races, while the outgoing Esteban Ocon was far from thrilled with the lackluster start to the season.
The irony is that Oakes was once part of Christian Horner’s group of young drivers at Red Bull, although his career has followed an almost identical trajectory. A father who owned a junior racing team, a failed racing career to eventually take charge of a team, and a move to the top flight of single-seater racing at a world-renowned brand.
Exactly how he will change the team remains to be seen, as does how much freedom he will have to take the reins on his own. But if Oakes is only half as successful in Formula 1 as Horner, Alpine will be very pleased.
