Who is Alpine's new F1 boss, Oliver Oakes?

Who is Oliver Oakes?

Oakes was born in January 1988, making him 36 at the time of taking the Alpine Team Principal role. That makes him the second youngest team principal in Formula 1 history, behind only Christian Horner. Oakes was born in Norfolk, England and was the son of Billy Oakes. He was, therefore, part of a motorsport family growing up. Billy founded Eurotek Motorsport, something which Oliver would take inspiration from later in his life.

Oakes then started his own motorsport career at a very young age. By age four, the Brit was karting. He found success during his childhood, becoming British Open Champion twice by the time he was 12. In 2005, at the age of 17, he took the next step in his career. He became the World Karting Champion, beating the likes of Valtteri Bottas and Jules Bianchi.

These positive results caught the eye of Red Bull, who decided to sign him up as a member of the Red Bull Junior Team. This put him in the same bracket as Sebastian Vettel, Sébastien Buemi, and Brendon Hartley. Oakes naturally switched to car racing and competed in Formula BWM with Carlin Motorsport.

On debut, Oakes secured pole position and the race victory. He stood on the podium more times and eventually finished sixth in the Championship. He competed in the 2007 Formula Renault Eurocup season and had a pole position in the 2008 British Formula 3 Championship at Donington. Oakes had some limited experience in GP3 but he never really made the next steps on the track and soon looked to take on other roles within motorsport.

What experience does Oakes have in management?

A lot. His first experience was with Team Oakes Racing. He then set up Hitech GP in 2015 in Formula 3, and now they also compete in Formula 2. They have won multiple races in Formula 2. Whilst they haven't yet in 2024, Paul Aron sits third in the Drivers' Championship after 10 race weekends. He has experience working with drivers such as George Russell, Liam Lawson, Juri Vips, Jak Crawford and Nikita Mazepin.

This means that Oakes should be very fine-tuned to the ongoings within the young drivers' market. A strength that Alpine will be looking to tap into in the coming years.