After quake at Formula 1 team
“Completely wrong”: Ex-Schumacher boss defends itself against reports
07.05.2025 – 8:06 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The change of management at Alpine caused a lot of sensation in the “premier class”. Flavio Briatore now contradicts reports – which did not throw good light on the racing team.
After his surprising return to the post of Formula 1 team boss, Flavio Briatore rejected speculations about internal arguments at Alpine. “A lot has been said in the past 24 hours, and Oliver Oake’s’ decision to resign for alleged disagreements was wrongly attributed,” the 75-year-old wrote on Wednesday on his social media channels: “This is completely wrong and far from the truth.”
On Tuesday evening, the racing team informed about the resignation of Oakes, and then announced another, already expected personnel on Wednesday morning: Replacement pilot Franco Colapinto will receive Jack Doohan’s alpine cockpit from the upcoming race in Imola (May 18). Since then it has been speculated that Oakes’ departure is related to the remarkable driver change during the current season.
“Oli and I have a very good relationship and had long -term ambitions to bring the team together,” Briatore now wrote: “We respect Oli’s desire for resignation and therefore accepted him. The reasons are not in the team, but are personal nature.” Oakes was also cited via Briatores channels. “Flavio was like a father for me. He has supported me without restriction since I took office,” said the statement.
The Rochade at the head of the racing team is a late comeback for Briatore: the former companion Michael Schumacher’s first in the world championship team Benetton was currently wearing a team boss post for the first time in 16 years. He has been an alpine consultant since last summer. From 1989, Briatore had already led the team from Enstone under the names Benetton and Renault, but in 2009 he had to withdraw as a result of the crashgate affair-an accident to influence the result. Briatore was initially closed for life, but successfully defended himself in court. Many years later he is now team leader in Formula 1.