Flavio Briatore has responded to the shock resignation of Alpine team boss Oli Oakes, labeling suggestions on the matter as being “completely false”.

Oakes resigned from Alpine on Tuesday, shortly before the team confirmed that Franco Colapinto will replace Jack Doohan in a race seat for the next five races of the championship.

Flavio Briatore’s statement on Oli Oakes’ departure

On Tuesday, Alpine made the shock announcement that Oakes – who took over from Bruno Famin as team boss last summer – had stepped away from the team, with the team’s executive advisor Flavio Briatore – a former long-time team boss at Enstone – assuming his duties.

“BWT Alpine Formula One Team announces that Oliver Oakes has resigned from his role as Team Principal,” read the announcement.

“The team has accepted his resignation with immediate effect.

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

“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 2024 Constructors’ Championship.

“The team will not be making any further comment.”

With no confirmation as to the reasoning behind Oakes’ departure being forthcoming, Briatore has issued a statement of his own dismissing speculative suggestions as to the nature of the resignation being inaccurate.

“A lot has been said in the past 24 hours incorrectly associating the decision of Oli resigning to an alleged disagreement or that we shared different views,” Briatore wrote on social media.

“This is completely false and far from the truth. Me and Oli have a very good relationship and had long-term ambitions to drive this team forward together.

“We respect Oli’s request to resign and have therefore accepted his resignation. The reasons are not related to the team and are of a personal nature.

“I will continue to be more and more involved with the team, together with the strong management we already have in place. We will work hard on improving our position this season and preparing for 2026.”

Oakes issued a message via Briatore’s post, saying, “It’s been a privilege to lead everyone at Enstone, what a team, what a place. It is a personal decision for me to step down.

“Flavio has been like a father to me, nothing but supportive since I took the role, as well as giving me the opportunity. Everyone is in place for 2026 and where this dream deserves to be!

“I believe in Enstone.”

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What might Flavio Briatore be referring to?

Briatore moving to dismiss speculation over an alleged disagreement would appear to point to suggestions that he and Oakes were not in full agreement over the driver line-up.

With Doohan, a driver with historic ties to Oakes’ Hitech GP junior team, dropped from his race seat in favour of Franco Colapinto, a driver who piqued Briatore’s interest towards the end of last season, the obvious hypothetical is that Oakes and Briatore were not in full alignment over the decision to demote Doohan back to reserve with Colapinto’s promotion.

There’s also the possibility that Oakes was pushing for Paul Aron, another of the team’s reserve drivers, to replace Doohan – Aron having recently completed a test alongside Colapinto at Monza in which he’s understood to have impressed Alpine with his pace, despite his relative lack of experience.

Other alternative scenarios could be that Oakes’s apparent lack of autonomy over the team for which he is ostensibly the boss rankled, while sources have indicated to PlanetF1.com that Oakes and Briatore did not see eye to eye on how to run the team – suggestions which Briatore’s statement would appear to downplay.

With Oakes pointing to personal reasons behind his decision to leave, another hypothetical could be that a potential sale – perhaps to the Mazepins – is not going ahead.

Former Uralkali chairman Dmitry Mazepin has been historically closely linked to Oakes through the Hitech operation and, while Alpine has always strenuously maintained the team is not for sale, actions taken in the past year have made a potential sale easier to facilitate – Renault cut its factory engine programme at Viry-Chatillion and will switch to a customer Mercedes engine programme next season.

With Viry repurposed by the Renault Group, potential buyers would thus ‘only’ have to buy the F1 team at Enstone, and not the two-pronged entity including the engine department.

Mazepin, a Russian oligarch whose son Nikita raced for Haas in 2021, was in the paddock at the three-day pre-season test in Bahrain, with the nature of the reasons for his visit remaining unclear.

Mystery surrounded his visit, with the 56-year-old understood by PlanetF1.com to have used a so-called rotational pass, which does not require prior guest approval and was not applied for by a team, Formula 1, the FIA or the promoters at the Bahrain International Circuit.

With Mazepin believed to have not been a guest of either Mercedes or Alpine – both teams with which the Mazepins have had historic links – Oakes said of the Russian businessman, “I’ve said hello to him. I haven’t met him.

“He’s a friend of mine [and] I used to be together with him in Hitech.

“He was here catching up with another friend of his. It’s nice to see him.”

It has been suggested that Oakes’ historic ties to Mazepin were not viewed favourably by Briatore.

If Oakes had been in place to try to facilitate a transitionary sale to his own Hitech organisation, perhaps with Mazepin and Vladimir Kim backing, this potential deal falling through could also be hypothesised as being a reason for Oakes’ departure.

However, the statements from Briatore and Oakes would appear to cold water upon all of these scenarios.

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