Briatore denies rift rumours after Oakes’ shock Alpine F1 exit

Flavio Briatore has denied solutions that disagreements between him and workforce principal Oliver Oakes led to the latter’s Alpine F1 departure.

Oakes was delivered to the workforce in July final 12 months to switch Bruno Famin after which went on to kind a tandem with government advisor Briatore. However six races into the 2025 season Oakes has all of the sudden resigned, with Briatore taking on his duties for now.

The shock exit coincides with Alpine’s determination to swap Jack Doohan with reserve driver Franco Colapinto for the following 5 races, after a troublesome begin to the season for the under-pressure Australian. That fed solutions that Briatore and Oakes disagreed on the transfer, and that maybe Oakes was getting disillusioned with who is actually making the important thing selections on the Enstone outfit.

However in a joint Instagram put up with Alpine, Briatore has denied that he and Oakes have been disagreeing over the working of the workforce.

“Rather a lot has been mentioned prior to now 24 hours incorrectly associating the choice of Oli resigning to an alleged disagreement, or that we shared completely different views. That is fully false and much from the reality,” Briatore said in a joint Instagram put up with Alpine.

“Me and Oli have an excellent relationship and had long-term ambitions to drive this workforce ahead collectively. We respect Oli’s request to resign and have subsequently accepted his resignation. The explanations aren’t associated to the workforce and are of a private nature.

The social media put up additionally included a message attributed to Oakes and directed on the Enstone employees. “It has been a privilege to steer everybody at Enstone; what a workforce, what a spot,” mentioned the Oakes assertion.

“It’s a private determination for me to step down. Flavio has been like a father to me, nothing however supportive since I took the position, in addition to giving me the chance. Everyone seems to be in place for 2026 and the place this dream deserves to be!

“I consider in Enstone.”

Briatore is overlaying Oakes’ duties for now, supported by Alpine’s technical management that features skilled palms like tech chief David Sanchez, racing director Dave Greenwood and sporting director Richard Lockwood.

“I’ll proceed to be increasingly concerned with the workforce, along with the robust administration we have already got in place,” Briatore mentioned. “We are going to work laborious on enhancing our place this season and getting ready for 2026.”