Flavio Briatore criticises “long list” of “wrong managers” at Alpine

Flavio Briatore insists there was “no management” at Alpine.

The Enstone-based F1 team have undergone major overhaul with their senior figures.

Last year Alpine saw Laurent Rossi (CEO), Otmar Szafnauer (team principal), Alan Permane (sporting director), Pat Fry (chief technical officer), Matt Harman (technical director), Dirk de Beer (head of aerodynamics) and Davide Brivio (director of racing expansion projects) exit.

F1 stalwart Briatore arrived recently at Alpine as their new executive advisor, and has swiftly replaced team principal Bruno Famin with Oliver Oakes.

“There was no management – I believe the problem of Alpine was this one,” the eccentric Italian Briatore said.

“At one point, they chose a few wrong managers. The list of the wrong ones was quite long. We have no list about the good ones.

“It’s like this – it’s difficult to manage Enstone. It’s a big team, a big monster.

“You need to be there. It’s very difficult to manage one team like Alpine from Paris. You need to have a daily presence.”

Why Briatore chose Oakes

Oakes got the nod from Briatore to become Alpine’s new team principal, replacing Famin who held the job for a year.

Oakes, a former racing driver, had founded Hitech Grand Prix but has now claimed his big break in F1.

“I knew at one point I needed to change the team principal,” Briatore said.

“I wanted to go much quicker for the team. I interviewed two people.

“Somebody was talking about Oli. We met three or four times for a long time to understand if it was a good possibility to work together.

“In this situation, what you need is people with you who have the same ambition. He’s young. He’s one of the youngest principals ever in Formula 1.

“And the feeling as well. I talked with a lot of people, three or four potential team principals. I became convinced Oli was the right choice for the team, working with me and working with everybody together.”

Briatore added: ”Oli had enthusiasm; he’s young, he’s enthusiastic, he’s ambitious. He’s what we need in the team.

“To turn around this team, you need young people, you need people with character, patience for the job, the people who understand who are the good ones or the bad ones, the people [who] understand what is going on in the race, people who understand what’s going on in the factory.

“This is the principle. Oli, I believe, he has no experience at a big team like this one but the talent to be successful.”

Alpine currently sit eighth in the constructors’ championship ahead of this weekend’s F1 Italian Grand Prix.

They endured a miserable start to the year which culminated in a collision between their drivers, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, in Monaco.

It was swiftly announced that Ocon would not continue with Alpine in 2025, and he signed for Haas.

Alpine have chosen to promote Jack Doohan into Ocon’s race seat next year, handing an opportunity to their reserve driver rather.