It has emerged that days earlier than Oliver Oakes resigned as staff principal at Alpine, his brother was arrested by police.
When Alpine introduced on Tuesday night that Oakes had resigned with fast impact, it was broadly assumed that his choice was associated to stories that Jack Doohan was to be dropped in favour of Franco Colapinto.
Certainly, lower than 12 hours later the French staff formally confirmed that the Argentine would accomplice Pierre Gasly for the subsequent 5 races.
Nonetheless, Flavio Briatore subsequently took to social media to insist that Oakes choice was purely down to non-public causes, and feedback from the Briton appeared to again this up.
Now, nonetheless it has emerged that Oakes’ brother, William, was arrested by the police at Silverstone every week earlier.
“William Oakes, 31, of Rugby was charged with transferring felony property on Friday, Might 2 after he was stopped within the Silverstone Park space in Northamptonshire on Thursday, Might 1, 2025 in possession of a considerable amount of money,” say the Metropolitan Police.
“He appeared earlier than Northampton Magistrates’ Court docket on Saturday, Might 3, and remanded in custody.”
Seemingly, Oliver subsequently headed to Dubai.
In fact, Oliver Oakes arrived at Alpine with a strong status having been the driving power behind Hitech, which had achieved success in F2 and F3 and even submitted a bid to enter the System One World Championship in 2026.
Hitech was initially based in 2002 by Dennis Rushen and David Hayle but it surely was in 2015 that Oakes primarily revived the staff. Partnering with ART Grand Prix it contested the 2016 FIA F3 European Championship, whereas in 2020 it expanded into F2, one among its drivers being Nikita Mazepin.
On signing Mazepin, his father Dmitry’s firm Uralkali grew to become a sponsor and partial proprietor of the staff, the Russian subsequently rising his stake to 75% courtesy of a Cyprus-based funding firm Bergton Administration Ltd.
Within the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, by which period Uralkali had grow to be a sponsor of the Haas F1 staff, for which his son now drove, Bergton’s shares had been offered to Oakes who subsequently fashioned a brand new firm Hitech World Holdings Ltd. This firm was fashioned simply three days after Mazepin and his son had been sanctioned by the British Authorities and the European Union.
It’s unclear how a lot cash William Oakes had in his possession, its origin or its vacation spot, however allow us to daydream that it was “north of a billion” and for use to buy Alpine on Dmitry Mazepin’s behalf, the Russian having made a shock go to to pre-season testing in Bahrain simply a few months in the past.
“Dmitry was on a private go to,” a spokesman for the Russian advised ESPN on the time. “He has remained pals with many individuals within the System 1 household and was glad to see them in Bahrain.”
As questions had been requested at to how Mazepin had obtained a go, consideration turned to Oakes, who denied that it was him.
“Sure. I’ve stated howdy to him, I have not met him,” he stated. “Sure, he is a buddy of mine, sure I was along with him in Hitech.
“He was right here catching up with one other buddy of his,” he added. “It is good to see him. I am not going to enter that, the world’s a loopy place”.
And it subsequently obtained just a little crazier.
Certainly, we’re questioning how Drive to Survive will deal with this… it has all of the makings of a mini-series of its personal.
