Since Oliver Oakes left Alpine in May, just as Franco Colapinto replaced Jack Doohan and returned to Formula 1, the team\u2019s structure was left without an official leader on paper. However, Flavio Briatore, in his role as advisor, took control and became the figure setting the direction within the team.<\/p>\n
In September, Steve Nielsen joined as general manager and has now made it clear that \u201cFlavio is the leader,\u201d while he has taken charge of the team\u2019s factory in England. \u201cI run Enstone and everything that comes with it, and that\u2019s how we move forward,\u201d he acknowledged in an interview with Motorsport.<\/p>\n
As things stand, Nielsen has taken on the responsibility of managing the day-to-day operations and publicly representing Alpine, but at the same time made it clear that Briatore is the one making the most important decisions. Among these, of course, is whether Colapinto will remain as a driver alongside Pierre Gasly in 2026.<\/p>\n
At Benetton and during the golden era with the double championship in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso at Renault, Nielsen worked at Enstone as sporting director. \u201cIt feels a bit like going back to the old school,\u201d he described, while also emphasizing that now, with time having passed, \u201cthere\u2019s a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome areas are immediately familiar, but they seem a bit smaller than I remembered. At the same time, there are new things. It\u2019s really nice to be here again. I\u2019ve been very warmly welcomed. I\u2019m meeting old acquaintances, but also many new faces, which is also good,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
After a few weeks in the role, Nielsen highlighted the team\u2019s potential. \u201cEnstone is a fantastic place with a lot of talent,\u201d he said, although he admitted\u2014and it\u2019s obvious\u2014that the current results don\u2019t reflect that. But 2026 is looking promising for Alpine, with the Mercedes engine, the new regulations\u2026 and Colapinto? It seems so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Oliver Oakes left Alpine in May, just as Franco Colapinto replaced Jack Doohan and returned to Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-200162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}