Hill astonished by the Alpine chaos: 'This must be a joke'

It has been a manic couple of days for the French team. On Tuesday evening, it was announced that Oakes had resigned, with many rumours around the potential replacement of Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto.

It was a move that the former 1996 Formula 1 World Champion was utterly astonished by, taking to Instagram to say: “This is a joke, right?” In his next story, he concluded that the departure of the team boss was no joke, but very real.

Flavio Briatore will be the one to take over the tasks of the departed team boss. Since May 2024, the Italian has been involved with Alpine as an advisor, and following the departure of Oakes, he will now be leading the team.

A day later, after the news of Oakes' departure, the change in the driver lineup at Alpine was also officially announced.

Doohan was replaced by Franco Colapinto, starting from the race weekend in Imola. The Argentine, who had been rumoured for some time to be stepping in at Imola, will have five races to prove himself with the team. After those five races, an internal evaluation will determine the best option for the rest of the season.