While new team boss Oliver Oakes attributes the team’s recent failures to poor management, Flavio Briatore insists that Alpine is not for sale.

With Renault apparently on the verge of phasing out the engine, Alpine will most likely turn to Mercedes. While this may shock purists – and employees at the French group’s plant near Paris – it could help the group become more competitive.

The Enstone-based team is now a shadow of its former self. The team that first entered the sport as Toleman, then morphed into Benetton, then Renault, then all sorts of other guises – even Lotus – and now bears the Alpine logo.

But with the different names, the club’s fortunes have changed. Today, the club struggles at the bottom of the mid-table while the constant comings and goings of management dominate the headlines.

Despite the turbulence, Briatore dismissed speculation about a possible sale of the team.

“It’s not for sale!” he told reporters. “One thing is very clear: Luca de Meo never wants to sell the team… Question finito!”

“Enstone has something that money can’t buy,” added new team principal Oliver Oakes, founder of Hitech. “It has a racing spirit, it has a history. You can’t help but walk around and find that something that just gives you enormous passion to make the place what it should be.”

“As for the shortcomings, I dare say the country has been poorly managed for a number of years,” he admitted. “We have some great people there. It is not the fault of the people, it is the fault of the previous leadership.”

“To turn this team around, you need young people, you need people with a lot of passion for the job,” he continued. “At one point, a few wrong managers were chosen. I think the list of wrong people was quite long.”

“If we all do a good job, we will progress,” he stressed. “Today, in Formula 1, it drives me a little bit crazy. Everyone gives long speeches and talks about a certain number of races. At the end of the day, it hurts a little bit to read that over and over again.”

“We just have to build a good car and a good team. And I think in the end the results will speak for themselves.”

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