When Alpine announced Flavio Briatore’s return to its management last June, the team’s press release said the newly appointed executive advisor would “predominantly focus on top-level areas of the team.” Less than a year later, his presence is firmly stamped across all aspects of the Renault-owned operation, from the scrapping of its engine program for 2026 to the upheaval of its driver lineup in the past 24 hours. And with the departure of team principal Oli Oakes on Tuesday, Briatore, for better or worse, is back in the driving seat.
Briatore’s return to the same team that he enjoyed championship success with two decades ago was always destined to be controversial. In 2009, the FIA issued a lifetime ban to the Italian for his part in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix Crashgate scandal, in which Briatore instructed Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash on purpose to trigger a safety car that would help teammate Fernando Alonso win the race. His ban was subsequently overturned by French courts in 2010, and while Briatore remained an influential figure in F1 during the intervening years, it was not until last summer that he became directly involved in team management once more.
The resignation of Oakes — due to personal reasons, according to a follow-up social media post by Alpine on Wednesday — will see Briatore reassume the day-to-day running of the team from Enstone. With his preferred driver lineup of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto now in place, the 75-year-old Italian once again has the team directly under his control while enjoying the backing of Renault CEO Luca de Meo.
Exactly what will emerge from the chaos of the past 24 hours at Alpine is far from clear. Briatore’s notorious cutthroat management style could well bring short-term gains, but the long-term prospects of the team remain as murky as ever.
Colapinto in, Doohan out
Recent events at Alpine will come as no surprise to those with long-enough memories to recall Briatore in his mid-2000s pomp. As Renault team principal in 2004, he fired Jarno Trulli after the Italian, who had secured the team’s only victory in Monaco earlier the same year, failed to score a point for five consecutive races. World champion in 1997, Jacques Villeneuve was drafted in as Trulli’s replacement for the final three races of the season, but struggled to adapt to the R24 and failed to finish higher than 10th — outside the point-scoring positions of the time.
Of course, there are several differences with the latest driver swap at Enstone. Rookie Jack Doohan was given just seven races (including his debut at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix) to perform, and his replacement, Colapinto, has been given just five to prove his worth.
However, while the door ostensibly remains ajar for Doohan to return, the additional sponsorship Colapinto brings to the team along with the awkward timing of a swap back in the middle of a Red Bull Ring/Silverstone doubleheader suggest the Argentine would have to perform woefully to lose his place again before July’s British Grand Prix.
So was it fair to cut Doohan after just six races? On the face of it, the Australian’s performances have been underwhelming. He has zero points to his name compared to teammate Gasly’s seven, with his best result coming at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where he ran inside the top 10 for much of the race but ultimately finished 13th.
Prior to that, he crashed out of the opening round on home turf in Australia, got tangled with Gabriel Bortoleto in a last-lap incident in the China sprint and had a huge accident in practice for the Japanese Grand Prix when he left his DRS open into the 165-mph first corner. Most recently, and possibly the final straw for Alpine’s management, he crashed out of Sunday’s race in Miami when he collided with Liam Lawson at the first corner.
In Doohan’s defense, his underlying pace has been respectable, with an average like-for-like qualifying gap to teammate Gasly of 0.314 seconds across standard qualifying sessions and sprint qualifying sessions combined. What’s more, in Miami on Saturday, Doohan outqualified Gasly for the first time in a non-sprint session, representing the kind of progress one might expect of a rookie in the first quarter of his debut season.
Doohan’s performances should also be mitigated by the pressure he has been under since Briatore signed Colapinto on a loan-style agreement from Williams in January. Before he had even driven the latest Alpine in preseason testing, the Australian faced questions about his future amid stories that Colapinto would replace him within the first five races of the season.
Alpine gave Doohan some support in the media, but it was telling that Oakes did not rule out the possibility of an early-season driver swap. What’s more, everyone connected to the team, including sponsors backing Colapinto, dropped endless hints that a move was being teed up around Miami time.
Perhaps the most telling preseason quote came from Williams team principal James Vowles, who made clear he had released Colapinto to Alpine in order to give the Argentine the best chance of racing in F1 this year.
“I wanted him to be racing in 2025 or 2026,” Vowles said after explaining that his current driver lineup of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz presented no possibility to promote Colapinto in the foreseeable future. “The best chance he has is with Alpine, as far as [getting a race seat in F1], that’s why he’s there. And I don’t mean that to the detriment of Jack. I hope Jack has a successful time.
“But ultimately, Franco is my driver that I want back in the car. After a period of time, he’ll return to Williams. That period of time is not a line set in stone where I can look you in the eye and say it. But I can say he’ll be back to Williams at some point.”
On Wednesday, Briatore claimed that Alpine’s novel rotating driver policy was aimed at giving it “a complete and fair assessment of the drivers” ahead of the opportunity presented by F1’s major regulation change in 2026. But with Williams seemingly able to demand Colapinto’s return in the coming years, Alpine may end up offering extensive race experience for a driver that is still destined to switch back to one of its main rivals when he hits his prime.
Meanwhile, the future and confidence of Doohan, who is the only junior driver to be promoted to a race seat in the history Alpine’s driver academy, looks in serious doubt.
What next for Alpine?
The chaos of the past 24 hours is very much on brand for Alpine. Since returning as a full works team in 2016, the Renault-owned outfit, which was rebranded Alpine in 2021, has not finished higher than fourth in the constructors’ and has won just one race and taken only nine podiums. It also let current championship leader, Oscar Piastri, slip from its driver academy to rivals McLaren in 2022 — a move that now looks all the more galling given Piastri’s current form and Alpine’s scrabble to find an effective teammate for Gasly.
Upheaval in the team’s management is the most obvious reason for its underperformance, with an especially quick turnover of senior figures in the past two years. The revolving door was set in motion by the exit of brand CEO Laurent Rossi in July 2023 followed by team principal Otmar Szafnauer, technical chief Pat Fry and sporting director Alan Permane a week later.
In the fallout of the exodus, Bruno Famin was appointed as interim team principal before becoming fully instated in the role later the same year. His tenure oversaw the departures of technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer, before Famin himself stood down almost exactly one year after he started.
Famin’s exit coincided with Renault Group’s decision to close down its F1 engine program by 2026 and buy in Mercedes power units under the next set of regulations. The decision, made in consultation with the newly appointed Briatore, will bring an end to a 49-year run as an F1 engine manufacturer at the end of this season.
Oakes joined Alpine as Famin’s replacement, with Doohan’s promotion to race driver for 2025 among the first major announcements of his tenure. However, with Briatore already in place, Oakes’ power within the team always seemed to be caveated by approval from above.
After an initial Alpine statement said the team would not comment on the reasons for Oakes’ departure, Alpine and Briatore posted on social media the following day to deny reports of a disagreement.
“A lot has been said in the past 24 hours incorrectly associating the decision of Oli resigning to an alleged disagreement, or that we shared different views,” Briatore said. “This is completely false and far from the truth.”
Oakes added: “It is a personal decision for me to step down. Flavio has been like a father to me, nothing but supportive since I took the role, as well as giving me the opportunity. Everyone is in place for 2026 and where the dream deserves to be.”
The unrealized potential of Alpine’s F1 team remains the biggest frustration of all. Despite the management upheavals, there is still a dedicated and talented workforce at Enstone that undoubtedly could have achieve more with a solid and consistent leadership direction.
While the switch to Mercedes power next year signals the end of Alpine as a works outfit, it could provide a significant boost in performance compared to non-Mercedes competition at the start of 2026. In order to capitalize on that opportunity, the team needs stability above all else.
Whether this latest era under Briatore provides that stability or simply comes with more months of upheaval remains to be seen.
