Oliver Oakes, the new Team Principal of Alpine in F1, returned to the choice of becoming a customer team. Something which will involve, at the end of the year, a divorce with Renault and its Formula 1 engine, to switch to Mercedes. Concretely, even if the Briton was not yet at Enstone at the time of the decision, he defends this strategy.
Alpine F1: Mercedes, an obvious choice
It's via the podcast Beyond The Grid that Oakes defended this view, while admitting that the subject was very “emotional”. All with a certain honesty, which now characterizes him.
“Times are changing and you can't rest on your laurels. We have to be honest, the decision to become a client team was in the best interest of the team. I know it was a difficult decision. I know there's a lot of emotion there because we're proud to be a factory team and we have one more year together, but I think it was also a big statement of intent to where we want to go.”, continues the person concerned.
« We're not here just to make numbers. We want to move forward. I think I was quite open, maybe too honest when I said, being selfish, I just want the best engine in the back of the car. At the end of the day, for me, we're here to race. I want to be at the front of the grid, I don't want to walk towards the back. The choice we made was to have the best engine at the back of the car and help the team continue to move up the grid.”
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In addition, the Englishman dwells on this choice of Mercedes, while other options were potentially on the table. Even if it is the break between Aston Martin and the brand with the star (in favor of a partnership with Honda, starting next year) which created the opportunity for Alpine F1. “I think you can't be completely sure, because nothing is sure in life, but you have to be pragmatic. I don't know all the ins and outs of the decision because it was a little before I arrived. But if I had to tackle it, I'd probably turn around and say, “Well, history shows that every time there's been a regulatory change, they [Mercedes] were strong. »
“I think you can see right now that the Mercedes powertrain is on the back of a customer [Mclaren] who is fighting for the world championship. […]. I think very early on it was pretty clear that from a customer powertrain perspective Mercedes was the obvious choice, simply because Aston was already switching to Honda, so there was a spot opening up with them . », he concludes.
It is therefore, well beyond present considerations, a choice for the future that was made at Alpine, within the Renault Group. Indeed, the transition to the new regulations appears to give Mercedes the advantage. Where Renault would therefore not be able to provide the best possible engine at the time of this change of rules. Although this is contested by the employees of the diamond, the CEO himself validated this choice, thus disavowing Viry and his know-how.
Obviously, if Alpine achieved its ambitious objectives in F1, then many supporters would undoubtedly end up forgetting this abandonment of the Renault engine, to celebrate the victories. Nonetheless, others will likely remind the French brand, if anything, that its tricolor DNA has evaporated. In addition, it will also be interesting to observe the reaction of the brand's customers, in dealerships, to the salespeople, when this subject of the engine is raised. Because the road Alpines will (always) run well with a French engine…
