A big announcement was expected at Alpine: that formalizing the departure of Jack Doohan for the benefit of Franco Colapinto. However, it is not this news that the team shared on Tuesday May 6, but the announcement of Oliver Oakes departure from its stable director, replaced by Flavio Briatore.
Flavio Briatore has never really hidden it: he had a considerable influence within the Enetone stable. Nevertheless, his power remained in the shadows, he was unofficial, and a sharing simulacrum had to be staged. Now, with the “immediate effect” departure of the British, there is no doubt that the Italian will impose his methods without complex, since he takes place at the top of the team’s hierarchy. This time, officially.
The reason for this departure has not yet been revealed, Alpine evoking a “resignation” of the former director. The F1 team also specifies that it will not be replaced, which means that Flavio Briatore will not play the temporary workers, but will settle in management permanently.
Glue painted to imole?
Flavio Briatore is not one to be measured in his ambitions. He himself repeated it many times: his goal is to place Alpine on the catwalks soon and, from 2027, to fight for the world title. Now in charge of the team, will his first decision concern his pilots? Besides, the corneal choice of the second bucket at Alpine since the start of the season is the source of the departure of Oliver Oakes? It is possible.
-As a reminder, since the start of the season, the Italian demanding demands performances from Jack Doohan, rookie in the discipline, while Oliver Oakes constantly sought to appease the pressure around the Australian, wishing to give him the time necessary to adapt. In Miami, during the sixth round of the season, the young driver lived a delicate weekend-punctuated by an abandonment in the race-and the rumors of a replacement by Franco Colapinto, reserve pilot of the French team, were becoming more and more insistent. In particular fed by … Flavio Briatore himself, master in the art of the implication and expressive faces.
So, now that Oakes is no longer there – the last theoretical bulwark protecting the Back of Jack Doohan in Formula 1 -, Franco Colapinto could well make its return to F1 from the next Grand Prix, on the Imola circuit.
More information to come …
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