Oliver Oakes is out. Jack Doohan is out. Flavio Briatore is in. Franco Colapinto is in.

As we were once told by Tears for Fears: “When people run in circles, it’s a very, very mad world.” – Here’s everything you need to know about the latest Alpine merry-go-round.

What has happened at Alpine?

For 24 hours it felt more like a question of what didn’t happen at Alpine as the team announced significant personnel changes, and key front-line ones at that.

The first of those came out of left field in the immediate departure of Oliver Oakes, who quit Alpine on Tuesday evening.

“BWT Alpine Formula One announces that Oliver Oakes has resigned from his role a Team Principal,” read the team statement. “The team has accepted the resignation with immediate effect.

“The team would like to thank Oliver for his efforts since he joined last summer and for his contribution in helping the team secure sixth place in the 2025 Constructors’ Championship.”

As Oakes made his way out of the door at Enstone, Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore was installed as team principal.

“As of today, Flavio Briatore will continue as Executive Advisor and will also be covering the duties previously performed by Oliver Oakes,” added the statement.

That, though, was not the announcement that the world had been waiting for. That was finally, after months of speculation, made 13 hours later.

“BWT Alpine Formula One Team announces that Franco Colapinto will drive alongside Pierre Gasly for the next five races,” read Alpine’s announcement.

“As part of the ongoing assessment of its driver line-up, the team has made the decision to rotate one of its race seats for the next five rounds of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship.

“BWT Alpine Formula One Team therefore announces that Franco Colapinto will be paired with Pierre Gasly from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, ahead of a new evaluation before the British Grand Prix in July.

“Jack Doohan remains an integral part of the team and will be the first-choice reserve driver for this period of time.”

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More on Oliver Oakes at Alpine – why did he leave?

Oliver Oakes joined Alpine less than a year ago in July 2024, the Briton replacing Bruno Famin as team principal.

The former boss of Hitech GP’s Formula 2 and Formula 3 teams, he joined Alpine less than a month after the team made another key signing, bringing in former Renault F1 team boss Flavio Briatore as executive adviser to the F1 team.

Oakes, the second youngest F1 team boss after Christian Horner, was a key player in Alpine’s strong end to the F1 2024 season that saw the team lift themselves to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, boosted by a double podium at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Under Oakes’ leadership, the team went from nine points to 65, the bulk of which were scored in the final five Grands Prix of the season, which created optimism for F1 2025.

It was short-lived.

The team failed to score a point in the first three races, during which time Pierre Gasly was also disqualified in China for running an underweight car, and while they have since scored seven, they’re a lacklustre P9 in the standings.

But as former Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer, one of six Alpine team principals since 2000, once pointed out (although referring to his time at Aston Martin): “Two popes, that’s not possible.”

Whether it was a lack of autonomy over the team, perhaps the tipping point the widely-suggested clash with Briatore in the Doohan v Colapinto debate, Oakes handed in his resignation after Miami.

Briatore and Oakes have both denied that narrative, the Italian calling it “completely false and far from the truth”, while Oakes says the 74-year-old has been “like a father to me”.

Why has Doohan been replaced with Colapinto?

But whoever made the call – Briatore, Oakes or collectively – Doohan is no longer a Formula 1 Grand Prix driver as he has been demoted back to a reserve driver slot.

‘Jack Doohan,’ read the Alpine statement, ‘remains an integral part of the team and will be the first-choice reserve driver for this period of time.’

The team has instead promoted Colapinto alongside Gasly, with the 2024 Williams super sub given his shot in what Alpine billed as an ‘evaluation’ with F1 2026’s reset in mind.

Nailing down their driver line-up is the latest piece in Alpine’s 2026 ambitions after the team already made the call to scrap their own engine project and run Mercedes power units.

“Having reviewed the opening races of the season, we have come to the decision to put Franco in the car alongside Pierre for the next five races,” said Briatore.

“With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up.

“We also know the 2026 season will be an important one for the team and having a complete and fair assessment of the drivers this season is the right thing to do in order to maximise our ambitions next year.

“The next five races will give us an opportunity to try something different, and after this time period we will assess our options.”

How long does Colapinto have to prove himself?

While Doohan was given six races in F1 2025 to stamp his authority on the Alpine race seat, Colapinto will have just five.

‘As part of the ongoing assessment,’ read the team’s statement, ‘the team has made the decision to rotate one of its race seats for the next five rounds.’

That’s Imola, Monaco, Barcelona, Canada and Austria. That’s six weeks of racing.

And then comes the ‘new evaluation before the British Grand Prix in July’.

What happens if Colapinto is worse than Doohan?

Colapinto has already come through one ‘audition’ in his nine races last season as a Williams driver.

Despite stepping into the FW46 having covered fewer than 200km in a Formula 1 car, he scored five points in his first four Grand Prix starts. That’s five more than his predecessor Logan Sargeant managed in 15 races.

But as he began to make a name for himself and was linked to teams such as Red Bull Racing, mistakes began to creep in and he suffered four crashes over the course of four races, which had a huge impact on Williams’ cost cap.

It begs the question, what happens if – again under pressure to secure a spot on the F1 grid – he has another spate of crashes?

Given Alpine have already spoken of a ‘new evaluation’, Colapinto could again find himself sitting on the reserve bench with fellow Alpine reserve driver Paul Aron then given his shot at Formula 1.

Doohan, it has been widely suggested, is done. Although he spoke of chasing “personal” goals in the exit announcement, ‘exit’ is the word to focus on.

How did Doohan’s results compare to Gasly’s?

That’s because not only did he not score a single point, but he was behind Gasly in every stat that matters.

The Australian driver secured a best Grand Prix result of P13, Gasly’s was seventh. Doohan didn’t come close to scoring in the Sprints, whilst Gasly managed a P8.

Overall points: Doohan 0-7 Gasly

And while he wasn’t whitewashed in qualifying, pulling one back in the Sprint in China and again in the Miami Grand Prix, he also wasn’t the fastest over a single lap.

Throw in his Australian Grand Prix crash, his Japanese Grand Prix practice shunt, and his Miami GP lap 1 shunt and it’s fair to say the only stat where Doohan won was with the repair bill.

Who’s taking over from Oliver Oakes?

Doohan’s manager, Flavio Briatore, is now the man in charge at Alpine, taking over Oakes’ previous responsibilities.

Colapinto, though, is the one that Briatore signed whereas Doohan is just the driver he manages – as Netflix’s Drive to Survive made clear in season seven.

Briatore was once a prolific Formula 1 team boss, the former Benetton principal stealing Michael Schumacher from underneath Eddie Jordan’s nose before making him a two-time World Champion.

He did the same with Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard winning the 2005 and 2006 World titles.

But throughout his time on the grid, there were allegations of cheating as rivals were adamant Schumacher’s title-winning Benetton F1 car in 1994 was running illegal software.

The biggest allegation against the Italian was in 2008 when, returning to Benetton – now called Renault – Briatore ordered Nelson Piquet Jr to crash at the Singapore Grand Prix to boost his team-mate Alonso’s strategy.

Investigated by the FIA, Briatore resigned from Renault claiming: “I was just trying to save the team. It’s my duty. That’s the reason I’ve finished.”

He was subsequently banned from Formula 1, along with Renault chief engineer Pat Symonds, but that was later overturned.

That paved the way for Tuesday night’s announcement, the once disgraced F1 team boss once again back in charge.

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