Alpine/Renault instability: from Fred Vasseur to Flavio Briatore, a revolving door of team principals. Alpine/Renault has cycled through seven team principals in nine years.

So many changes
The Oakes-Briatore switch at the helm of Alpine, officially announced on Tuesday evening to general astonishment, is only the latest piece in an endless sequence of leadership changes within the ‘Enstone team’ over the past ten years. Since Renault decided to directly manage a Formula 1 team again in 2016, no fewer than seven different team principals have taken turns at the top. In total, the tally has been just nine podiums and one win (Esteban Ocon’s in Hungary in 2021) in nine years and under ten full seasons.

It started with Fred Vasseur
The first key manager for the French marque was current Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur, who led Renault’s F1 return and closed out a difficult debut season in ninth place among Constructors, with just 8 points. On January 11, 2017, about two and a half months before the season’s first GP, came the first change: Fred Vasseur left the team after disagreements with team staff, handing the reins to President Jérôme Stoll and, more importantly, to CEO Cyril Abiteboul, who soon effectively became team principal.

The Abiteboul years
Abiteboul’s tenure was the longest and saw the most notable growth for the team, at least in terms of results, culminating in three podiums during the Covid-affected 2020 season. Abiteboul, who had pinned many of his hopes on signing Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull, left in January 2021 as the team rebranded to Alpine, shortly after Daniel Ricciardo announced his move to McLaren.

Five team principals in five years
Since then, the French team has had a new team principal nearly every season: in 2021, with Fernando Alonso back on board, the team was led by Marcin Budkowski. However, he left in January 2022 following clashes with CEO Laurent Rossi. Alongside the Polish engineer, Alain Prost also exited his role as non-executive director. The four-time world champion slammed the door, calling Rossi “an incompetent, arrogant man with no humanity.”

From 2022 until mid-2023, the team was headed by Otmar Szafnauer, who came from a long stint at Force India/Racing Point and remains the last manager to start and finish a full season with the French outfit. After the 2023 Belgian GP, both he and sporting director Alan Permane left the team, followed at season’s end by technical director Pat Fry. In July, the controversial CEO Rossi also lost his job, replaced by Philippe Krief as managing director. During this time, there were also near-simultaneous exits of Piastri and Alonso, who moved to McLaren and Aston Martin, respectively.

And now, Flavio Briatore again
Finally, in recent months: Bruno Famin, who had joined in 2022 as executive director, took over as team principal until the middle of the 2024 season. From the Dutch GP, his role was filled by the young Oliver Oakes, who stayed on until last Tuesday. Shortly before, in May, Flavio Briatore — former team principal in the Benetton and mid-2000s Renault eras — had rejoined the ‘Enstone team’ as executive advisor. Now, officially, the manager from Cuneo has formally returned to the top position.