Formula One F1 - Pre-Season testing - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - February 27, 2025 Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes and Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore during testing REUTERS/Jakub Porzycki
LONDON (Reuters) -Alpine have gone from having the youngest principal in the Formula One paddock to the oldest, while handing Pierre Gasly a third different teammate in nine races -- all in the space of 24 hours.
Once again the words turmoil and chaos, perhaps unfairly, are being attached to the Renault-owned team whose glory days are an increasingly distant memory with success only a glimmer in the future.
When Oliver Oakes arrived last August, beneath the watchful gaze of special advisor and former boss Flavio Briatore, the then 36-year-old came in as a racer who understood the sport and could sort things out.
The Briton surprisingly resigned on Tuesday after eight months, officially for personal reasons, with 75-year-old Briatore -- who in 2009 was banned from F1 for his part in the 'Crashgate' scandal -- again calling the shots.
Gasly, who joined in 2023 when American Otmar Szafnauer was in charge and has scored all of their seven points so far this season, is now working with his fourth team boss at the Enstone factory.
The Frenchman is clearly hoping the turbulence will now settle.
"He’s come with a lot of experience, a lot of network, someone that makes changes, and sometimes you’ve got to be pushed and challenged, and that’s what he does all the time," Gasly said in Briatore's defence last weekend.
"I think he’s brought a lot of good stuff to the team."
Szafnauer left in July 2023, along with chief technical officer Pat Fry and sporting director Alan Permane. Fry is now at resurgent Williams, currently fifth in the standings, while Permane is at Racing Bulls.
Bruno Famin replaced Szafnauer and lasted a year, handing over to Oakes.
At the end of September last year Renault -- who rebranded their team Alpine in 2021 -- announced the end of engine production after nearly half a century in F1.
Next year the team will race with Mercedes power units, a move that ends their status as a factory outfit and has been interpreted by some as a prelude to a sale despite loud denials from management.
Esteban Ocon, Gasly's teammate last year and now at Haas, was released before the end of last season with Jack Doohan taking his place in Abu Dhabi.
After six races in 2025, Australian Doohan has been moved aside for Argentine Franco Colapinto -- who has officially been given five races to show what he can do before further assessment.
The seeds of that development were sown in January when Alpine signed Colapinto as reserve, triggering speculation that Doohan's days were numbered.
Meanwhile Australian Oscar Piastri, the driver Alpine announced as their new signing for 2023 only for him to refuse to race for them, is now a multiple winner leading the championship with McLaren.
Piastri dodged a bullet then, wisely advised by manager and former racer Mark Webber who started out in F1 as a Renault test driver and was guided throughout his career by Briatore.
Fernando Alonso, a double world champion with Briatore's Renault in 2005 and 2006 and still racing at 43, had triggered that fiasco by jumping ship to Aston Martin for 2023 -- a move that extended his career.
Renault, or Alpine, have won just once -- in 2021 -- since they returned as a works team in 2016.
Barring a freak situation, as nearly happened in a wet Brazil last year when Ocon and Gasly were second and third to rescue the team's season and finish the campaign sixth overall, the next one looks a long way off.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
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