Alpine face major signing dilemma following imminent F1 change

Alpine's revolving door of team principals could be set to continue later this season, according to Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok.

Last week, Oliver Oakes resigned from his leadership position at Alpine having only taken on the role as team boss back in August 2024.

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The team's executive advisor, Flavio Briatore, was then confirmed to be taking over Oakes' duties- temporarily at least - with the controversial Italian having previously been team principal of the Enstone outfit when they competed under the Renault name.

In August last year, Oakes replaced Bruno Famin, who had been team principal since July 2023 after taking over from Otmar Szafnauer who was axed from his position after just 18 months in the role.

Now, Chandhok believes the team could yet be on for more team principal drama, questioning Briatore's ability to manage the team on a day-to-day basis.

"They're going to have to recruit aren't they I mean whether that is an internal promotion or someone from the outside, there's no way Flav's going to be doing the day-to-day mundane stuff of, let's look at the payroll and running the team on a day-to-day basis," Chandhok told the F1 Show on Sky Sports.

"Running an F1 team is a 24/7 thing and we know Flavio's got several different business interests and things like managing Fernando Alonso and running his restaurants and hotels and nightclubs and all this sort of stuff.

"I can't see him running this by himself. We're heading for team boss number eight aren't we basically, who that is, time will tell," the former F1 racer concluded.

Alpine's F1 merry-go-round

Controversial F1 figure Briatore is now 75 years old, bucking the recent trend of teams opting for relatively young leaders, including Alpine's former boss Oakes who became the second youngest principal in the sport's history when he started the role.

Briatore was recently told by Ralf Schumacher that he's 'too old' to take on such a position of responsibility within an F1 team, and Chandhok's comments reiterate that sentiment.

Despite the team announcing that Briatore will absorb the responsibilities of team boss, It's likely Alpine will look for a full-time replacement for Oakes, which will add to the long line of Alpine team principals.

The Alpine name entered the sport in 2021, and as well as now having had four team principals in that time, they also started off in 2021 with a shared responsibility role between Marcin Budkowski and Davide Brivio, who both reported to Laurent Rossi, although this structure only lasted one season.

On top of the chaos going on at the top of the Alpine team, the Enstone outfit have also decided to change their driver lineup for the upcoming Imola Grand Prix, with Franco Colapinto replacing rookie Jack Doohan at this weekend's race after the Aussie star was only given six races to prove himself.

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