A lead candidate for the vacant position of F1 team boss at Alpine has emerged, with a veteran of Enstone understood to have been approached for the role.

Following the resignation of former team principal Oli Oakes after the Miami Grand Prix, Alpine looks set to add to its senior management roster with the appointment of former sporting director Steve Nielsen.

Steve Nielsen in line for senior Alpine F1 role

PlanetF1.com understands Nielsen has been approached for a senior role with Alpine, with the obvious vacancy being that of team principal with the Enstone-based squad.

Discussions are understood to have taken place over the course of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend with executive advisor Flavio Briatore to discuss how to proceed forward as Alpine expressed an interest in signing Nielsen to a senior role.

While the role of team principal is currently vacant, it has been suggested that Nielsen’s job title may be different from what Oakes had. An example of this was recently seen at Sauber, where Alessandro Alunni Bravi occupied the defacto team leadership role under the title of team representative. In 2021, Alpine itself was led by Marcin Budkowski under the title of executive director.

Nielsen, 60, has been working as a consultant with Formula 1 since early 2024, taking up that role shortly after departing his position as the FIA’s Sporting Director – a role he occupied for 11 months.

Prior to this, Nielsen had worked as the Sporting Director for Formula 1 for just over five years.

Joining the grid in 1986 as part of Lotus’ test team, Nielsen’s extensive C.V. has seen him operate the spare parts department for Lotus and Tyrrell before becoming assistant team manager in 1994.

He then put in stints with Benetton (under Flavio Briatore), Tyrrell, Honda, and Arrows before returning to Enstone in 2001 as Sporting Director. He spent the next decade in this role, overlapping with Briatore until the Italian’s ban from F1 in 2009.

Remaining with Enstone through its rebranding as Renault F1 and then Lotus, he switched to Caterham as Sporting Director in 2012, joined Toro Rosso in ’13, and then joined Williams as Sporting Manager in late 2014.

He remained in this role until joining the FIA in 2017.

It’s understood that, to be named as team principal, Alpine must gain FIA approval for Nielsen’s appointment – team principals, as well as other senior figures such as sporting directors, technical directors, team managers, and senior race engineers, require FIA sign off.

As is commonplace for these roles, Nielsen’s prospective appointment faces some scrutiny as it’s understood he left the FIA under a cloud.

Nielsen’s name emerging as the lead candidate to step into the breach comes as two recent F1 team bosses have seemingly been ruled out of contention.

Former Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner may be available, but PlanetF1.com understands that Alpine has not approached him about a role, while this publication has also learned that former F1 team boss Otmar Szafnauer has not been approached about a possible return.

Speaking about the hunt for a new team leader as Alpine raced with Dave Greenwood as its official representative during the European triple-header, Briatore re-iterated the desire to make the right choice for Enstone as he seeks to turn Alpine’s fortunes around.

“We’re looking. For the moment, nothing changed,” Briatore told media, including PlanetF1.com, over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

“I feel sorry for Oli, honestly, because I had a very good relationship with him. He was a good team principal. Everybody knows for personal reasons he stopped and resigned from Alpine.

“We’re looking. We don’t want to make any mistakes. I’m prepared to take some time. But the moment we decide what is the new team manager, put in this way, we’ll tell you.”

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