After the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, Alpine was hit by yet another shake-up to its ranks – this time both on and off-track.
It was widely anticipated that Jack Doohan would be moved aside for Franco Colapinto, albeit the Alpine management had reassured he was safe until the summer as speculation persisted through the opening quarter of the season.
But less than 24 hours before the driver switch was confirmed, Oliver Oakes resigned from his post as team principal and meaning that Flavio Briatore was left in de facto control of the F1 operation, the latest in a long list of personnel to be at the helm this decade.
The Italian has only returned to F1 in the past 18 months having been on the outside ever since a lifetime ban was overturned following his part in the Renault crashgate scandal of 2008.
Briatore arrived at Alpine as an Executive Advisor, though many have felt that he has been in charge even before Oakes departed. The decision to ditch Alpine-Renault’s in-house power unit operation to take on Mercedes units for 2026 and beyond created unrest in the French manufacturer’s ranks, to no avail.
And the option to bring Colapinto in as a reserve driver from Williams over the winter, when the team already had reserve options and a rookie starting the season, put instant pressure on Doohan and brought scrutiny from pundits and fans.
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There hadn’t been a week in the first six races that didn’t involve some questioning over its driver line-up and whenever Doohan did put a foot wrong, like when he crashed in Japanese Grand Prix practice, the narrative continuously returned to Colapinto.
A PR disaster then and that has spilled over into the fan fallout on social media after a fake post that was made out to have been released by Doohan’s father Mick following Colapinto’s Imola qualifying crash led to abuse directed towards the Australian family. Doohan Jr responded with a statement condemning the abuse and said: “As you can clearly see, the story circulating above is completely false.
“It was fabricated by Argentine fans attempting to portray me and my family in a negative light.
“They edited the original content to make it appear as though my father posted it, which is entirely untrue. “Please stop harassing my family. I didn’t think I would have to get to this point.”
He then corrected the source of the fake post, adding: “The source is not Argentine. However multiple Argentine outlets falsely reported the fabricated image which triggered the online abuse on my family.”
But it has stemmed from the situation created by Alpine’s management – with Briatore at the helm.
Colapinto contradiction adds to uncertainty
The chaos and division at Alpine can be demonstrated by the contradiction made by Briatore himself at the Emilia Romagna GP weekend.
When Colapinto was announced in the seat alongside Pierre Gasly it was for five races before an evaluation could be conducted. Briatore said in the official team release: “Having reviewed the opening races of the season, we have come to the decision to put Franco in the car alongside Pierre for the next five races.
“With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up. We also know the 2026 season will be an important one for the team and having a complete and fair assessment of the drivers this season is the right thing to do in order to maximise our ambitions next year.
“We continue to support Jack at the team, as he has acted in a very professional manner in his role as a race driver so far this season.
“The next five races will give us an opportunity to try something different and after this time period we will assess our options.”
Yet speaking to Sky Italia at Imola, Briatore said: “It’s not that a driver gets three or five races. I expected more from Jack Doohan – maybe he needs a break.
“Franco will race as much as needed. I read somewhere that he’ll have five races, but no, there’s no set limit on his races.
“He needs to be fast, not crash, and score points. I’m only asking him these three things – not 10. If he does them well, he will drive forever.”
That somewhere was your own team, Flavio. The division in the ranks has to be sorted ahead of next season so that the team can get off on the right foot.
It cannot afford the slow start it had last term and the subsequent time it has taken to get Gasly back into the fight for points. The run to the summer break is crucial for the entire outfit.
