Moving chairs in Alpine

 In the French Alpine team, the team principal resigned and the drivers were replaced — all within 12 hours.

Photo by Sam bagnall

Oliver Oakes, the team principal of Alpine, resigned with immediate effect. One of the youngest team bosses will be replaced by Formula 1 paddock legend Flavio Briatore, who already held this role during Alonso's first championship titles. Back then, however, the team was called Renault, not Alpine. In 2009, following the "Crashgate" scandal, Briatore received a lifetime ban from the paddock, which was later reduced to three years. Since then, he has not returned to the paddock in a team principal role.

Photo by Sam bagnall

Roughly twelve hours later, the team announced the long-speculated news that Jack Doohan had raced his final race for Alpine in Miami. He will be replaced by Franco Colapinto starting at Imola. Colapinto has been given a contract for five races for now. However, he is not a rookie — the Argentine driver made his debut last year when he replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams.