After the race weekend in Baku, Alpine’s future looks pitch black.
Alpine is in shambles and everyone can see that. The Enston-based team has been fighting the whole season against itself. The A524 project didn’t improve as expected, key figures have said their goodbyes. Even Esteban Ocon has decided to leave behind the pink and blue for a more stable white, joining Haas in 2025.
But, we must admit that Alpine is trying. In order to try to resurrect the team, Luca De Feo, CEO of Renault, decided to call back Flavio Briatore. The Italian manager is now the executive advisor and he made some changes. After all, Briatore is not a stranger to Formula 1 or winning.
A day of two halves for the team 💔 pic.twitter.com/eGIMnV2Uxo
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) September 14, 2024
But besides all the efforts, everything is uncertain for the French team—even their presence on the grid for upcoming seasons.
Under a new management
One of Briatore’s first moves since returning to Alpine was replacing Bruno Famin with a new Team Principal, Oliver Oakes. He’s one of the youngest TPs on the grid alongside Christian Horner. According to the executive advisor, the old management wasn’t what the team needed.
“Enstone it’s difficult to manage. It’s a monster. You can’t do it from Paris or whatever, it’s required to be present all the time” – Flavio Briatore.
Now, Oakes seems to fit Briatore’s standards: young and full of passion, as he said.
Speaking of a young addition to the team, there is also a new driver. After Ocon decided to leave, there were few candidates for his seat. From the paddock in Baku, Briatore revealed that they were trying to sign Carlos Sainz, but things didn’t go as expected. So he looked inside his own box and signed Jack Doohan, already a reserve driver for the team.
But there are still a few questions to answer.
And the problems continue
And in Baku, Alpine faced yet another problematic weekend. From FP1, Ocon and Gasly struggled in their cars. Ocon had to retire from FP1 due to a problem with his Power Unit and qualified in P20. On Sunday morning, Alpine communicated that the driver had to start from the pit lane after the team worked on his car under parc fermé conditions.
On the other side of the box, Gasly should’ve started his race in P13, but he was disqualified after his car was found to have “exceeded the instantaneous fuel mass flow”.
An update on Pierre’s Qualifying today. pic.twitter.com/YfPu3Ar4v7
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) September 14, 2024
At the end, both cars finished their race outside the point zone, Gasly in P12 and Ocon in P15. Not the worst results, but things could have been better.
But there are only 7 races left, and the French team has to resolve all their issues for the upcoming season. Will De Feo sell the team? Will they keep the Renault engine or will they become a client team?
The only certain thing is that Alpine needs to figure out its own identity.
