Alpine chief picks apart competition: “Very tight in the midfield”

Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes has delivered his verdict on the midfield ahead of the season-opening Formula 1 race in Australia. 

The three practice sessions have now come to an end. FP1 finished with rookie Jack Doohan in 13th and Pierre Gasly in 17th. FP2 saw a slight improvement as Doohan and Gasly finished with the 14th and 15th fastest times, respectively, and FP3 saw them finish 15th and 12th.

With just over an hour to go until qualifying, Oakes explained to Sky Sports F1 that there is still some work to do.

“Little bit of work to do,” he said.

“I think it’s great to get on track [for the] first race of the year. I think we had a strong test in Bahrain. So far it’s not been bad, but it’s very tight in that midfield.”

When asked about areas of concerns, Oakes turned to the French team’s closest rivals. He explained:

“I think we saw so far the Williams looks quick. I think even the RB was with Tsunoda, so it’s not going to be an easy weekend.

“Williams have clearly pulled incredible performances out of yesterday and today.”

He added:

“I think there’ll be a little bit of a swing [from] track to track as well. This weekend [Williams] looked very good, particularly yesterday in the cooler conditions as well, so I think we’ve just got to stick to what we’re doing.

“We know it is going to be very close in that midfield.”

Oakes joined Alpine as team chief in the summer of 2024, taking over from Bruno Famin. He has also been joined by Flavio Briatore as Alpine’s executive advisor. Briatore recently revealed to Motorsport.com that he has set his sights on fighting for the championship in 2027.

“This season is important because we need preparing ourselves for 2026 when we need to start winning races.

“In ’26 we have the Mercedes engine and, in the meantime, we need to fit in more people with experience in our team. It is the same as at Benetton, people said it was a joke because we were a t-shirt maker but after we started winning some races, everybody wanted to come to the team, people started paying attention. In the same way as Renault.

“If everybody is working together, I believe in 2026 it is possible to be winning races and in 2027 fighting for the championship.”