Is Briatore ‘Too Old’ to Return as Alpine’s Team Principal?
May 8 – Flavio Briatore is “too old” to return to his former role of a full-time Formula 1 team boss.
That’s the view of former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, as he reflected on the latest seismic events at Alpine – including the ousting of Jack Doohan.
Some think Briatore and Oliver Oakes, the team boss who has just proffered his resignation, have been at odds about whether to promote Franco Colapinto mid-season since the very beginning.
Those rumours were so powerful after this week’s news of the Doohan-Colapinto swap for at least five races promoted both Briatore and the now-departed Oakes to issue a statement.
“A lot has been said in the past 24 hours incorrectly associating the decision of Oli resigning to an alleged disagreement,” Briatore said, adding that it is “completely false”.
Oakes agreed, saying stepping down was a “personal decision”.
As for Doohan, who now slips into the reserve role, Schumacher does not necessarily disagree about the demotion. “He’s certainly a really nice guy,” he said, referring to the son of Australian motorcycling legend Mick Doohan, “but just not good enough for Formula 1”.
On Colapinto, Schumacher also told Sky Deutschland: “Briatore believes in him – and he also brings a lot of money with him.”
What Schumacher clearly disagrees about is that Briatore, who vowed to become “more and more involved” at Alpine in Oakes’ absence, is fit to take over as the full-time team principal.
“In his (advisory) role and with his experience, he did a great job,” the German said. “But he’s too old to be actively involved in the company every day as team principal.”
Indeed, 75-year-old Italian Briatore, the ultra-successful former Benetton and Renault chief, underwent heart surgery just last year.
Schumacher added: “Flavio will always do his own thing. That’s also the reason why Oliver Oakes pulled the plug. Flavio also had no problem with Oakes leaving.
“From what I’ve heard, Flavio does everything himself, but I certainly hope not.”
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
I don’t think so, & certainly no more than Marko for his role.
I still believe the driver saga was at least a marginal contributor to Oakes’ resignation decision & the ‘personal reasons’ reference could simply mean that he didn’t feel like he could do his job as pleased & therefore, decided to resign on his own.
Finally, to restate one of my previous points, that Doohan may remain in the team in reserve capacity for now, he’ll certainly end up getting sacked altogether over time, with Colapinto ultimately becoming a long-term full-time driver.
Oh come on, he’s already doing the job anyway which is why Oakes has resigned. Flav is not a man to share power, he just tells people what’s going to happen.
Correct
I ultimately agree.
Watch out Alpine, Flav doesn’t believe rules apply to him! But then as Renault you would know that.
Have the Oakes brothers been very naughty, suitcase full of money and arrested, doesnt look good
& that’s ultimately at least one of those ‘personal reasons’ for Ollie’s resignation.
The Oakes brothers ,Flav, Red Bull own Albon ,Nicholas Latifi and Josh Capito short stay at Williams then leave F1. Red Bull probably have a choice of either Williams driver to replace MV if needed. Just saying, it all feels a bit strange. Oh and Red Bull owners have almost limitless wealth and no accountability. Ford engines, who really pays who?
”Red Bull own Albon” & ”Red Bull probably have a choice of either Williams driver to replace MV if needed”
– You couldn’t be more wrong, lol.
Additionally, Latifi & Capito didn’t exactly leave F1 voluntarily, but because they didn’t have any options left.
Furthermore, Ford will only provide technical assistance to Red Bull’s PU project, although the part about Red Bull owners having no accountability is true to some extent.
Albon has been personally sponsored by the Thai owner of Red Bull throughout his career. Just saying, unfortunate crash just before they both left. So much money washing around in F1 you can’t trust anyone.
I’m aware, but that’s only the Thai division that is/has been his personal sponsor, which is totally separate from the energy-drink company’s all other divisions, & having personal sponsors is perfectly normal in F1 generally.
However, so much money is indeed washing around in F1.
Ford were initially only providing the battery and assoc tech, theres ZERO way of knowing how much of the Rbpt engine will be from Fords engineers and ultimately it doesnt matter, and no accountability? what does that even mean..!, i know what Blo means in so much as if Rb owners WANTED Albon or Sainz to replace Max they can have him financially,contracts mean F**k all
Looking at Dorilton capital investment it’s quite possible that Chalerm Yoovidhya could be the owner of Williams F1. It would have cost about $300,000 including debts and is now worth probably three times that. Whoever it is dos’nt want it to be known for some reason but Chalerm is reputedly worth around 36 billion so for him it would be small change.
now you mention that i do seem to remember some rumours at the time of that involvement but as you rightly say , you’ll never know
You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar la la laalalala, dont you want me baby Dont call us Mr Oakes , well call you
Ironic that Oakes does a runner to be replaced by Flav of all people. Or was it a payoff?
untill Mr Putin decided hed send his cannon fodder halfway across Europe, a mate of his owned 75% of Hitech Oakes f2 team, then suddenly days before the event Mr Oakes suddenly found the Millions to buy back his 75% or did he?, , what is certain is that from that day onwards Oakes suddenly owned Hi tech outright, a smarter person than me can access either the free version of companies house accounts or the full version is they pay there fee to them, it makes 30M Of interesting reading
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.