BARCELONA, Spain — Flavio Briatore has said Alpine will not rush into a snappy decision on who should replace Oliver Oakes as team boss.
Briatore has assumed the responsibilities of team principal since Oakes’ shock resignation at the start of May.
Ahead of the weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, the Italian sat in as Alpine’s team representative in Friday’s press conference, although the team has stressed he is not set to replace Oakes’ role like-for-like.
“We are looking,” Briatore said on the hunt for a new team boss. “For the moment, nothing changed.
“I feel sorry for Ollie, honestly, because I had a very good relationship with him. He was a good team principal. Everybody knows for personal reasons he stopped and resigned from Alpine.
“We are looking. We don’t want to make any mistake. I’m prepared to take some time. But the moment we decide what is the new team manager, put in this way, we will tell you.”
Briatore suggested he has set a high bar for who the role should go to.
“Now we are looking for somebody, you know, there’s a lot of people it is possible to be doing this kind of job. But we’re looking for somebody good, somebody who understands, somebody who wants to be part of the team. I know a few people who want to be part of this new trip with Alpine. We decide quick.”
Briatore, who led Renault’s F1 team to championships in 2005 and 2006, controversially returned to Alpine in an advisory role last year.
He was once given a lifetime ban from F1 for his role in the Crashgate scandal as Renault boss, only for it to be overturned in court.
He returned last year to the same team, now rebranded as Alpine, and has had a significant impact behind the scenes since.
He played a key role in Renault deciding to stop building F1 engines at its French headquarters.
Alpine will race with Mercedes power in 2026, which has led to Briatore to guarantee that the team can fight for wins next season.
Briatore also played a big role in first promoting Jack Doohan into a race seat this year, while also pursuing the signing of Argentina‘s Franco Colapinto, who replaced Doohan after the Miami Grand Prix.
Source: espn.com