Oliver Oakes speaks out on supporting Jack Doohan amid new Alpine hires

Alpine Formula 1 team principal Oliver Oakes has addressed the restructuring which took place over the winter and how this will impact not only the team, but their new driver Jack Doohan.

Former Williams head of race strategy Richard Lockwood joined the Enstone outfit at the beginning of 2025 as the sporting and strategy director.

The French team has also welcomed Dave Greenwood this year as racing director. He previously served as a trackside engineer during the team’s title-winning seasons in 2005 and 2006. Greenwood joins the team with experience from Renault, but also had roles with Ferrari, United Autosports, and Hitech.

Speaking about the off-season changes and how it has been so far working with Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore, Oakes explained to Sky Sports F1:

“There’s a lot of Flav [Flavio Briatore] on my shoulders,” he says while laughing. “No, it’s been really nice.

“I mean, look, it gives you a chance to regroup, to make some little steps forward, but also it doesn’t stop, does it?

“It’s amazing, you think you’ve got those couple of weeks back at base, but actually Bahrain comes up very quick, and we’re here again. So, it has been good.

“It’s nice to have a few new faces as well, Dave being one, Richard as well, on the pit wall with you because I think we’ve got a really good team, but it’s always good to have good people join.”

The new management changes aren’t the only new hires joining the team, as they have also just signed their fourth reserve driver, Kush Maini. The Alpine Academy driver joins Franco Colapinto, Paul Aron, and Ryo Hirakawa. Oakes also commented on how having 4 reserve drivers could be putting pressure on rookie Jack Doohan and how they are supporting the Australian driver.

“Yeah, I mean, look, I think I was probably a little bit too supportive—maybe saying, just give him a bit of a break. We put him in that situation by having a few reserve drivers, but that gave us options as a team.

“But I think, look, he did a good job in Bahrain. He’s been very good here out of the blocks, and I think you can see he’s getting a bit of confidence because it isn’t easy for the rookies. I think we saw on track that a couple of early mistakes can put you on the back foot.”