This choice sparked a big controversy within the group. During last season, Alpine made its decision to stop production of its Renault engines and come to Mercedes. The historic site of Viry-Châtillon is therefore largely impacted by this choice, while Alpine will refocus its activities towards Great Britain and Enstone. Promoted to director of the F1 Team, Oliver Oakes justified this decision in the podcast Beyond The Grid : “Times are changing and you cannot 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”
For Oakes, Mercedes is the right choice
For Oliver Oakes, the choice to fall back on Mercedes will allow Alpine to return to the top. He believes that the German team has always performed well during regulatory changes, as will be the case in 2026: “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. » The future will now be the great judge of the peace for Alpine.
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To summarize
Oliver Oakes has justified Alpine's decision to abandon the Renault engine to equip itself with Mercedes. The director of the Formula 1 section believes that the German team has always been able to adapt to changes in regulations.
