Oakes Alpine F1 Eyes 2025 Sacrifice for 2026 Success

Alpine F1 Balances 2025 Efforts with 2026 Regulation Focus

18/01/2025

Alpine F1’s Oliver Oakes outlines strategic compromises in 2025 to ensure optimal readiness for the monumental 2026 regulation overhaul.

Oliver Oakes trusts Alpine F1 to bounce back after a very challenging 2024 season. The team’s car even showed improvement towards the end of last season, which he believes could be a positive sign for 2025.

“I think we need to be pragmatic, but we also shouldn’t stick to just one plan; we need to be flexible,” Oakes said on the Beyond the Grid podcast. “There’s no magic. We simply have to ensure the team works together. We need to produce a better car.”

“In 2024, one of the key positives is that we brought performance to the car. We had a tough start to the season, but the improvements we made worked. We got it right twice. That shows we have a good group.”

The Briton acknowledges that Alpine will need to sacrifice some of its 2025 car development to focus on the massive 2026 project: “It’s a sort of compromise. Resources must go to the current car, but we also need to prepare for the registration change starting in January.”

“It’s fun to make these decisions. I think there’s still a lot of important work to be done today that will remain relevant in a year, even with the regulation changes, so we’re pushing on all fronts.”

“The rules will change, but you keep improving all the performance tools involved in car development. You must always bring performance, as regardless of regulatory changes, that’s the foundation of motorsport.”

“From my side, we obviously need to ensure we allocate enough resources to avoid falling behind on the 2026 rules, but we’re still pushing for 2025. There’s a lot left to do.”

Oakes: Alpine F1 Eyes 2025 Sacrifice for 2026 Success Oakes: Alpine F1 Eyes 2025 Sacrifice for 2026 Success

Full 2025 F1 testing results

Carlos Sainz
1
CARLOS
SAINZ
Leader
Lewis Hamilton
2
LEWIS
HAMILTON
+0.031s
Charles Leclerc
3
CHARLES
LECLERC
+0.083s
George Russell
4
GEORGE
RUSSELL
+0.197s
Max Verstappen
5
MAX
VERSTAPPEN
+0.218s
Alex Albon
6
ALEX
ALBON
+0.302s
Kimi Antonelli
7
KIMI
ANTONELLI
+0.436s
Oscar Piastri
8
OSCAR
PIASTRI
+0.592s
Pierre Gasly
9
PIERRE
GASLY
+0.692s
Lance Stroll
10
LANCE
STROLL
+0.881s
Liam Lawson
11
LIAM
LAWSON
+0.904s
Jack Doohan
12
JACK
DOOHAN
+1.020s
Yuki Tsunoda
13
YUKI
TSUNODA
+1.149s
Isack Hadjar
14
ISACK
HADJAR
+1.327s
Fernando Alonso
15
FERNANDO
ALONSO
+1.352s
Esteban Ocon
16
ESTEBAN
OCON
+1.380s
Lando Norris
17
LANDO
NORRIS
+1.534s
Gabriel Bortoleto
18
GABRIEL
BORTOLETO
+1.709s
Nico Hulkenberg
19
NICO
HULKENBERG
+2.109s
Oliver Bearman
20
OLIVER
BEARMAN
+3.013s

Testing Total Distance Covered by Team

1
Mercedes
458
2
Haas
457
3
Racing Bulls
454
4
Alpine
405
5
Williams
395
6
Ferrari
382
7
McLaren
381
8
Sauber
354
9
Aston Martin
306
10
Red Bull
304
Race Center
Australia Flag
Australian GP
13 Mar - 16 Mar
FP1
14 MAR 01:30
FP2
14 MAR 05:00
FP3
15 MAR 01:30
QU
15 MAR 05:00
RACE
16 MAR 04:00
F1 CALENDAR 2025
Race
Date
Australian Flag
Australian
Albert Park
16 Mar
Chinese Flag
Chinese
Shanghai International
23 Mar
Japanese Flag
Japanese
Suzuka Circuit
6 Apr
Bahrain Flag
Bahrain
Sakhir desert
13 Apr
Saudi Arabia Flag
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street
20 Apr
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