Alpine System 1 group boss Oliver Oakes says the group enhancing its fortunes over the second half of the 2024 season has proven that streamlining its Enstone operation was the correct option to go.
Hitech junior team chief Oakes was brought in alongside advisor Flavio Briatore by Renault boss Luca de Meo to assist regular the ship at Alpine after a rocky first half of its 2024 marketing campaign.
As a part of De Meo’s plans, the producers determined to wind down its F1 power unit programme that was working on the new 2026 engines, inking a customer deal with Mercedes instead.
However the reorganisation embarked upon by Oakes and Briatore additionally affected its automobile headquarters in Enstone, which has been slimmed down from over 1100 workers to round 900.
Explaining the thought course of behind it, Oakes says the current upturn in type underneath technical director David Sanchez has proven that the reorganisation was the “proper factor to do” for the leaner squad.
“At the moment it wasn’t simply Viry [the team’s power unit headquarters] that was getting a bit bit reorganised, we had been additionally doing the identical on the location in Enstone,” Oakes advised Autosport.

Esteban Ocon, Alpine, Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Photograph by: Alpine
“I believe we have confirmed that was the correct factor to do and on the finish of each group in F1 is all the time striving to get higher, but in addition to get extra environment friendly.
“In a funds cap world, you have to be sure you’re placing assets in the correct space. And I believe the mainstay of that matter was that we have to deal with the primary factor, which is constructing a great racing automotive and going racing. And that is been an actual ethos since I arrived within the group in July there, that every part is about making a greater automotive and going racing.
“I might say we’re now round 900 [people in Enstone]. Look, I believe clearly everybody in F1 talks about headcount. And a few individuals calculate that as whether or not you are counting individuals in cap, out of cap, whether or not you are producing your individual gearbox and suspension or not. I dare say we’re one of many kind of smaller outfits now, contemplating we do the entire automotive.”
Oakes is assured the group has every part it wants to maneuver again to the entrance of the midfield, though he stopped in need of placing a timeframe on it.
“Enstone has been there a very long time,” he defined. “The partitions have gotten extra historical past in F1 than most factories, however we have got the correct quantity of assets there. The primary useful resource immediately is nice individuals and we have got a variety of nice individuals there.
“There was a variety of funding the previous few years, which additionally exhibits the assist and dedication from the group on the finish of the day. We have a brand new simulator, new dyno, all these issues that most likely have not been spoken about, however we’ve every part we’d like.
“However we’re persevering with to speculate. That is one factor that is amazed me in F1, it is not simply the want listing of what they need on the race automotive. It is also all of the toys round that. It by no means stops.”
On this article
Filip Cleeren
System 1
Alpine
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