Oakes Eyes Red Bull Formula for Alpine Success

Oliver Oakes sees Red Bull’s F1 journey as a blueprint, striving to replicate its meteoric success with Alpine in the sport.

Oakes experienced a meteoric career as a single-seater driver, mirroring the path Christian Horner followed before transitioning to team leadership. Like Horner with Arden Motorsport, Oakes founded and now leads Hitech. The Alpine F1 director admits he now hopes to emulate his Red Bull counterpart’s success at the highest level.

“I think it’s only by taking on this role that I’ve realized some of those similarities,” Oakes told Reuters. “I think it’s something to aspire to as well, in terms of what they’ve achieved.”

As a driver, Oakes was even supported by Red Bull, bringing him into contact with Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s advisor, with whom he still maintains positive ties. He praises Red Bull’s accomplishments in Formula 1.

“It’s more of a friendship than something related to daily work. He’s been a great mentor to me over the years, with Helmut’s carrot-and-stick approach, as everyone knows. But he’s phenomenal.”

“That team, that organization, what they’ve accomplished—the triangular management approach with Adrian (Newey), Helmut, and Christian working together—they’ve been a kind of benchmark for many people.”

The Briton also values Alpine’s collaboration with Flavio Briatore and Luca de Meo: “Working with Flavio, whom I’ve gotten to know closely over the past four or five months, I think the first thing that stands out is that they don’t mess around.”

“They are here to race. And they are extremely important because, in fact, they get straight to the point. And I think that’s often what you need if you want to perform.”

One of Alpine’s major decisions since the arrival of Briatore and Oakes has been to abandon Viry’s engines to collaborate with Mercedes: “I just want the best engine for the team. Formula 1, as we can see right now, is offering a very tight battle at the front and in the midfield.”

“And so, selfishly, that’s what I want. I wouldn’t say Alpine has been mandated to be a French team. There’s a mandate to be the best Formula 1 team possible.”

Oakes has been involved in motorsport for a long time and doesn’t feel his youth, despite being the youngest director on the grid: “I started racing at the age of four, then karting until I was 16 or 17. Then I continued in single-seaters until I was 23.”

“I can’t remember how old I was when I started Hitech—I’d say I was in my twenties. I don’t feel young. I feel like I’ve been competing forever.”