Is Renault meddling too much with Alpine’s F1 team? Oakes refutes that theory

Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes has responded to comments from Otmar Szafnauer hitting out at the Renault leadership, asserting his Formula 1 team is “very lucky to have that support”.

Szafnauer was Alpine’s team principal from February 2022 to July 2023. They subsequently parted ways due to the American and Renault CEO Luca de Meo disagreeing on the team’s timeline for success, as several key figures from the squad were shown the door.

At the time, Alpine was following a 100-race plan launched by Laurent Rossi, then Alpine CEO, in October 2021 “to reach a level of competitiveness that places us on the podium as many times as possible in 2024” before reaching the front of the grid the next year – which Szafnauer felt was too ambitious, reckoning success was possible on the longer term.

Seventy-four grands prix have taken place since the now-abandoned 100-race plan was introduced, and Alpine achieved just four top-eight finishes in 2024 – including its sensational double podium at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Asked in April 2024 whether Renault understood what it took to be successful in F1, Szafnauer retorted: “Not from what I saw.

“I think the best thing, and not just Renault but for big car companies to do – and I’ve seen it a lot, even with car companies that have racing as part of their DNA: they shouldn’t meddle. Leave it! It’s so much different from a car company, you should just leave it to the experts.”

Oakes, who took up the team principal mantle after interim boss Bruno Famin departed in August 2024, acknowledged there were ‘elements of truth’ in Szafnauer’s opinion but still defended the Renault leadership’s approach.

“What I would say is that it’s not always one size fits all,” Oakes told Autosport in an exclusive interview.

“I think it’s fair to say that elements of it are true – and he’s a good mate, he’s been here before – but I think people should also remember who pays the bills and who supports the team. And from my point of view, we’re very lucky to have that support.

“It’s easy to always point the finger at somebody who’s ‘meddling’, but sometimes you have to ask yourself, well, why do they have to get involved? Is it because we’re not handling the stuff? Is it because we really have taken our eye off the ball? You can get frustrated at first, but then you step back and you say, ‘Actually, we probably should have done that better, but we didn’t want to hear that.’

“I don’t think there’s any need to hide things. I don’t think there’s any need to keep them at arm’s length. I think at the end of the day we have to work together. We have to build that trust. F1 is a complex business, as is the automotive world, and you can’t get it right all the time. I think obviously what’s happened before – everyone has their views, their opinions.

“From my side, maybe things are a bit different now. Maybe Luca has more direct contact with me and Flavio [Briatore, Alpine’s executive advisor since May 2024]. Maybe the team has had to hit a bit of rock bottom to reset. I don’t know. At the end of the day none of that is stopping you from making a good race car.”

Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Oakes is now tackling his first full season at the helm of the Alpine squad and would be forgiven for any sense of trepidation after the outfit changed team principals in each of the last four years.

“Everybody says to me, do you feel it like a weight on your shoulders or a pressure? And I really see it differently,” the Briton insisted. “There’s no master plan. There’s no stuff that’s been said before, ‘100 races’ and all that. We just have to get better. We have to be a well-run team.

“And I think we just have to focus on ourselves. And even with all the noise about the power unit and all the talk about selling and all that sort of rubbish, I think people have already seen that we’re just not really going to be bothered by that anymore. We’re just going to keep our heads down.”