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It has emerged that days before Oliver Oakes resigned as team principal at Alpine, his brother was arrested by police.
When Alpine announced on Tuesday evening that Oakes had resigned with immediate effect, it was widely assumed that his decision was related to reports that Jack Doohan was to be dropped in favour of Franco Colapinto.
Indeed, less than 12 hours later the French team officially confirmed that the Argentine would partner Pierre Gasly for the next five races.
However, Flavio Briatore subsequently took to social media to insist that Oakes decision was purely down to personal reasons, and comments from the Briton appeared to back this up.
Now, however it has emerged that Oakes’ brother, William, was arrested by the police at Silverstone a week earlier.
“William Oakes, 31, of Rugby was charged with transferring criminal property on Friday, May 2 after he was stopped in the Silverstone Park area in Northamptonshire on Thursday, May 1, 2025 in possession of a large amount of cash,” say the Metropolitan Police.
“He appeared before Northampton Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, May 3, and remanded in custody.”
Seemingly, Oliver subsequently headed to Dubai.
Of course, Oliver Oakes arrived at Alpine with a solid reputation having been the driving force behind Hitech, which had achieved success in F2 and F3 and even submitted a bid to enter the Formula One World Championship in 2026.
Hitech was originally founded in 2002 by Dennis Rushen and David Hayle but it was in 2015 that Oakes essentially revived the team. Partnering with ART Grand Prix it contested the 2016 FIA F3 European Championship, while in 2020 it expanded into F2, one of its drivers being Nikita Mazepin.
On signing Mazepin, his father Dmitry’s company Uralkali became a sponsor and partial owner of the team, the Russian subsequently increasing his stake to 75% courtesy of a Cyprus-based investment company Bergton Management Ltd.
In the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, by which time Uralkali had become a sponsor of the Haas F1 team, for which his son now drove, Bergton’s shares were sold to Oakes who subsequently formed a new company Hitech Global Holdings Ltd. This company was formed just three days after Mazepin and his son were sanctioned by the British Government and the European Union.
It is unclear how much money William Oakes had in his possession, its origin or its destination, but let us daydream that it was “north of a billion” and to be used to purchase Alpine on Dmitry Mazepin’s behalf, the Russian having made a surprise visit to pre-season testing in Bahrain just a couple of months ago.
“Dmitry was on a personal visit,” a spokesman for the Russian told ESPN at the time. “He has remained friends with many people in the Formula 1 family and was happy to see them in Bahrain.”
As questions were asked at to how Mazepin had obtained a pass, attention turned to Oakes, who denied that it was him.
“Yes. I’ve said hello to him, I haven’t met him,” he said. “Yes, he’s a friend of mine, yes I used to be together with him in Hitech.
“He was here catching up with another friend of his,” he added. “It’s nice to see him. I’m not going to go into that, the world’s a crazy place”.
And it subsequently got a little crazier.
Indeed, we’re wondering how Drive to Survive will handle this… it has all the makings of a mini-series of its own.
