Up till the beginning of this week nobody exterior of Formulation One or motorsport had heard of Oliver Oakes. Within the area of some days that has modified.
Oakes’s abrupt resignation from his position as group principal at Alpine F1 on Tuesday garnered headlines throughout sport, primarily due to the presumed involvement of Flavio Briatore.
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The septuagenarian Italian, who has been concerned in a string of controversies in a vibrant and controversial profession, and who from the game, was mentioned to have had a disagreement with Oakes over the group’s driver line-up.
However that also didn’t fairly clarify Oakes’s sudden resignation. This was, in any case, a extremely rated younger group principal – the second youngest within the sport’s historical past when he was appointed final summer season – who was being tipped to switch Christian Horner at Purple Bull someday. Would Briatore have actually let him go?
A joint assertion from the pair of them the next day, denying any fallout and suggesting that Oakes had departed for “private causes”, solely added to the intrigue.
Oliver Oakes along with his shut buddy and former Alpine colleague Flavio Briatore on the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in March – Getty Photos/Mark Sutton
Then on Thursday got here a brand new twist: Telegraph Sport broke the information that Oakes’s brother, his fellow director at his Hitech Grand Prix, a race group which competes in varied world championships, in addition to varied different entities in accordance with Firms Home, had been charged final Friday, simply days earlier than Oakes’s resignation.
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What’s extra, the Metropolitan Police confirmed to the Telegraph that William Oakes, 31, had been stopped in possession of what it described as “a considerable amount of money”, charged with “transferring prison property” and remanded in custody after showing earlier than Northampton Magistrates’ Court docket final Saturday.
Oliver Oakes has not been accused of something and isn’t needed for questioning in relation to something. He’s understood to have travelled to Dubai after Miami however past that he has not surfaced in public. He declined to remark when contacted by the Telegraph Sport.
What we do know is that there’s a lot of uncertainty at his junior racing groups, who compete in F2, F3, GB3 and British F4, in addition to the all-female F1 Academy.
Oakes may need been driving for a Formulation One group, reasonably than working one, had issues labored out in another way.
Oakes rose via karting’s ranks to be topped world champion at 17 – Alamy Inventory Picture/Motorsport Archive Photos
From The King’s College to karting champion
Rising up in Norfolk, he grew up within the motorsport world. Oakes’s father Billy was the founder and proprietor of the now-defunct F1 group Formulation Renault, in addition to the British F3 group Eurotek Motorsport.
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By the age of 4, Oakes was driving karts. And whereas he was a pupil at The King’s College, previously generally known as King’s Ely, he discovered sufficient time to take his karting extraordinarily significantly, turning into the British Open champion within the sport twice.
In 2005, now 17, he grew to become a karting world champion, beating the likes of future F1 drivers Jules Bianchi and Valtteri Bottas to the highest prize. This caught the attention of the newly shaped Purple Bull Junior Programme, as he joined Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi, Brendan Hartley and a sure four-time F1 world champion named Sebastian Vettel as a member of the group.
Like Horner, the Purple Bull group boss whose sneakers he has been tipped to fill, Oakes graduated from karts to race automobiles the place he had a decent if unspectacular profession. He completed sixth in Formulation BMW and went on to compete in varied different championships together with the British Formulation 3 Worldwide Sequence in 2008 in opposition to Sergio Perez. However like Horner, he rapidly realised he was extra lower out for driving race groups from exterior the cockpit.
In 2011, Oakes shaped Group Oakes, which took half in a number of main European and world competitions. Then in 2015 he shaped Hitech Grand Prix, a group first began in 2002 however which he helped relaunch. It was there that his controversial affiliation with Russian oligarch first started.
Dmitry Mazepin, a Russian oligarch, handed over his Hitech shares to Oakes 9 days earlier than the invasion of Ukraine – Lightrocket/SOPA Photos
Nikita Mazepin, the son of Dmitry Mazepin, drove for Hitech in Formulation 3 – Getty Photos/Mark Thompson
Mazepin initially purchased a stake in Hitech in 2016, when his son Nikita arrived to compete in F3, with the group additionally gaining Russian minerals firm Uralkali as a sponsor. Over time, the Russian – a detailed, private buddy of Russian president , with whom he sat within the Kremlin on the day Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 – elevated his holding in Hitech to 75 per cent by way of Cyprus-based funding firm Bergton Administration Ltd.
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In a collection of selections which have been necessary sufficient to be mentioned in Parliament, Mazepin’s shares have been all handed over to Oakes 9 days earlier than Russia’s invasion. Oakes then shaped a brand new firm to take management of the shares simply days after Mazepin and his son have been sanctioned by each the Authorities and the European Union. has since had his ban overturned by the European Court docket who dominated that ‘affiliation’ along with his father was not sufficient to warrant it. There isn’t any suggestion Oakes was concerned in any wrongdoing.
Oakes, who mentioned on the time that it was “at all times a part of the strategic plan for Bergton Administration to exit Hitech in early 2022 and myself to personal Hitech totally”, has carried on working his groups very successfully by all accounts. Colleagues describe him as “competent” and “gregarious”. He was seen because the strait-laced Brit attempting to run a decent ship at Alpine alongside the extra unstable, flamable Briatore.
The information cycle has moved on so quick that Oakes was nonetheless listed because the Alpine group principal on the French producer’s web site on Friday. As soon as tipped to switch Horner, his future is now unclear.
