’It’s always been about racing, I don’t know anything else’ – F1's newest team boss Oli Oakes on getting Alpine back on track

F1 Correspondent & PresenterLawrence Barretto
Barretto-on-oakes.jpgFormula 1 header template - 2024-10-11T181301.891.png

Not long after Oli Oakes was announced as Alpine’s new Team Principal – and the second youngest team boss in Formula 1 history – he had a call from rival and Mercedes chief Toto Wolff to congratulate him.

“Toto said something quite funny,” says Oakes. “He said ‘it’s good to have some young blood [among] us dinosaurs!’ I was laughing away, it was nice of him to be so welcoming. People at home don’t often get to see that part of F1 – how close people are, how so many people have come up through the ranks together in different ways. I think it’s quite cool.”