Peter Windsor believes latest recruit will be a ‘big thing’ for £1.1bn F1 team

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Alpine will have a new team principal after the summer break when Oliver Oakes assumes the reigns from interim Bruno Famin.

It is the latest change in a revolving door of team principals for the French outfit, which has suffered a slow start to its 2024 campaign.

After changing everything apart from the steering wheel compared to last year’s car, the A524 proved to be unreliable and lacked performance at the beginning of the season in Bahrain.

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished in P18 and P17 of the classified runners and were a lap down on eventual race winner Max Verstappen. It is in stark contrast to their race at the same track in 2023, when Gasly finished in ninth after qualifying at the back of the grid.

Oakes takes over the team after a more encouraging run of races for Alpine, but there is still work to do if they want to improve their position in the Constructors’ standings.

Discussing his appointment on his YouTube livestream, Peter Windsor has backed Oakes to help bring them back to regular points finishes amid uncertainty behind the scenes.

Peter Windsor backs Oliver Oakes at Alpine

Oakes comes to Alpine having managed the Hitech junior formula team for several years, with many comparing his ascent to a team principal role to Christian Horner.

Having also been a racing driver himself before getting into driver management, Windsor believes that Oakes is the ideal candidate to take over from Famin.

“They have got Oliver Oakes running Alpine now, which is a very good thing for them. I imagine Ollie is doing the same model as Christian Horner, who had his own GP2 and GP3 teams at the time he got the Red Bull offer,” said Windsor.

“He’ll do a good job, he’s got a good racing brain. He’s got a good feel for racing and drivers, and that’s a big thing for Alpine.”

Unrest behind the scenes at Alpine

The unrest behind the scenes at Alpine has been marred by uncertainty at Renault, which is going to be scaling back its involvement by reallocating staff at its Viry-Chatillon engine division to other areas of the motor car business.

Alpine has reached an agreement in principle to use Mercedes engines from the 2026 season onwards, in a technical partnership that will also see them use their gearboxes.

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Newly appointed team advisor Flavio Briatore has reportedly pushed for Alpine to become a customer team since joining, and was recently seen talking to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner in Hungary.

Horner later admitted that teams have ‘approached’ Red Bull about a power unit supply from 2026, but the team will instead focus on supplying themselves and sister team Visa CashApp RB initially.