(Motorsport-Total.com) – Oliver Oakes could well claim to be the fastest team boss in Formula 1, but for now he has a lot of work to do to be able to say the same about his Alpine team, which has been in the last has continued to slide over the years.
Oliver Oakes has taken over the reins at Alpine from Bruno Famin Zoom Download
Now, after a turbulent phase, he hopes to help the team regain more stability together with Renault CEO Luca de Meo and advisor Flavio Briatore.
Oakes comes from a racing family. His father Billy was the founder and owner of the former Formula Renault and British Formula 3 team Eurotek Motorsport. He started karting at the age of four and became karting world champion in 2005. He was once a member of the Red Bull junior team, along with Sebastian Vettel, Brendon Hartley, Jaime Alguersuari and Sabastien Buemi.
“Sometimes I was fast, but ultimately not fast enough. That’s why I’m on this side of the fence!”, he says in conversation Motorsport.comsister site of Motorsport-Total.comwhen asked about his driving career.
“I had my moments. (Red Bull advisor) Helmut Marko was pretty brutal and said I hadn’t realized my potential in the cars. I think he’s partly right. I managed that in some cars, not in others .”
“I don’t know exactly why it didn’t work out. Maybe I should ask myself that and do a bit of self-reflection! When you look back, maybe you could have done a few things differently as a young person. There are always different reasons. As with everything in racing There is no easy solution.”
“But I also feel pretty lucky that I got to experience everything, from karting to Formula 3, and I was able to fulfill a dream in a different way.”
Oakes brings a lot of experience
Oakes is referring to the Hitech GP team, which he founded in 2015 and which now competes successfully in six different championships, including Formula 2 and Formula 3. That’s why Oakes believes he can effectively use his experience as a former driver and team boss at Alpine.
“If someone asks me today what helps me the most in this job, I would say it’s a mixture of everything,” he explains. “The driving was pretty good, but I was lucky that my mother sent me to school. Although I always complained to her like hell on Monday mornings because I had to leave so early even though I had just come back from a race.”
“And then – from a business perspective – I built and grew my own company, these six teams, 100 people… When I put it all together, I’m lucky that I had all of that. I think it was a slightly different training. I had racing training.”
Photo series: The current Formula 1 team bosses
Alpine: Oliver Oakes (Great Britain), since 2024
Photo series
When James Vowles moved from Mercedes to Williams, he made headlines when he expressed shock that the team was using an Excel spreadsheet that was “impossible to use” to manage more than 20,000 car parts.
Oakes says he has found nothing like this in his first few months at Enstone, but admits that some areas on campus need investment.
“I knew some facets of it from the last few years. A lot has obviously changed here. Otmar (Szafnauer; editor’s note) was here, he was a friend, and when we met occasionally, I was able to find out a lot.” says the team boss.
“But I arrived without much prior knowledge because you have to take things as they come anyway. And you only find out the truth when you go into the details yourself. You have to form your own picture of things.”
“But since I’ve been here there’s been a lot of talk about what’s been done over the years and for what reasons. At the moment I’m looking forward. We have to move forward, the past is in the past.”
“There has been a lot of investment in some areas of Enstone and there are some things that are still the same as they used to be – not quite like they were in Flavio’s time, but there are a lot of good things and a lot of things we can still improve. But “I wouldn’t say it’s like Vowles and Williams,” insists Oakes.
Times of change for Alpine
The Brit replaced Bruno Famin at Alpine, who had only been in the job for just over a year, while Szafnauer also only spent a short time there before being fired.
His arrival comes at a turbulent time with Renault suspending its Formula 1 engine production, which has caused disagreements at the Renault factory in Viry-Chatillon. In addition, Oakes will be working with a character like Briatore, who led the team during its most successful period when it won constructors’ and drivers’ titles in 2005 and 2006.
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Briatore’s presence will increase the pressure on Oakes, but for him it is a “comfortable” pressure. “There is pressure, yes, because I don’t like being at the back of the grid. The job brings pressure, but I think it’s different…”
“A sports psychologist once told me that pressure is like the water pressure in the shower. I see running a Formula 1 team as a huge responsibility. There are thousands of people who rely on you to lead the team and make the right decisions,” says Oakes.
“That’s the one word I would use – responsibility, and the other is competition. You want to be the best. I’m pragmatic and I’m well aware that Formula 1 is very complex and there are a lot of big teams that are good are led and have been there for a long time, with much more stability than us.”
“But I’m pretty excited about it. Because the great thing about Formula 1 is that you’re constantly being judged, and if you do a good job, everyone sees it. I take that pressure on myself because I want to be good,” he says the Brit stated.
Briatore is also a reason why he chose this path: “I call it the project. He’s putting pressure on him because he wants to get this team back to the top, and everyone who knows him knows that Enstone is his baby is.”
“We all have a first love in life, and it wouldn’t bother him if I said it like that. For him, it’s something that’s really close to his heart and that appealed to me. Also his experience and his commitment – He is very successful, whether in Formula 1 or with his restaurant businesses.”
Dynamic top trio to success?
“I’ve looked at successful Formula 1 teams and in most cases it’s been down to really strong leadership. That can be two, three or four people who have a common vision and that’s usually the owner and senior management. When I talked to Flavio and Luca, you could see their passion for the project. It’s about what drives you.”
However, Oakes wants to put his own stamp on Alpine. Insiders praise his openness and willingness to communicate, and it is already noticeable that the mood in the team is improving and things are finally heading in the right direction again.
“There are many different leadership styles,” he says. “It’s interesting because today you can see a real mix. There was a time when entrepreneurs founded and led teams. Then there was a time when former engineers became team leaders. But everyone does what suits them best Background fits.”
“I don’t claim to be the best engineer, businessman or driver. My point is that we can only be successful if we have the best people and a good culture to support them. These are the simple things “We have to do it right, and Enstone used to do that very well.”
