Formula 1 News: Alpine 'still French' amid Dmitry Mazepin visit

(GMM) Dmitry Mazepin was simply “catching up” at Formula 1’s pre-season group test in Bahrain last week. That is the insistence of Alpine F1 Team boss Oliver Oakes, who knows the controversial Russian well from their collaboration at the junior racing team Hitech.

Observers in Bahrain were shocked to see Mazepin, whose Uralkali sponsorship and son Nikita were expelled from Haas at the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis three years ago, in the Sakhir paddock.

Some believed the billionaire was a guest of Alpine, but now it appears that he may actually have simply had a generic guest pass – meaning F1 and the FIA had no prior knowledge of his attendance.

Oakes admits he “said hello” to Mazepin, 56, who was with Nikita’s younger brother.

“Yes. I haven’t met with him,” Alpine’s team principal insisted.

“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. It was nice to see him.”

As for what else Mazepin was doing in Bahrain, Oakes responded: “I’m not going to go into that, the world’s a crazy place.”

Last week, however, Renault CEO Luca de Meo insisted that Flavio Briatore arriving as a team ‘fixer’ and the end of the works engine program, are not signs that Alpine is being packaged up for sale.

“I am often asked by the press if we want to sell, but we have never wanted to,” de Meo told AS newspaper.

A source close to Mazepin told a specialist outlet that the Russian was in Bahrain on a “personal visit”.

February 28, 2025

(GMM) Alpine remains a French Formula 1 team, despite a lack of interest from the country itself and a new interest from the Russians.

That’s the view of team owner Renault’s Italian CEO Luca de Meo, whose even more famous countryman Flavio Briatore is busily revolutionizing the outfit after a major 2024 slump.

“The car is much better,” Briatore told Canal Plus at the Bahrain, “we have new and very important sponsors and the team is starting to take shape.”

One of those new sponsors is Mercado Libre, one of new reserve driver Franco Colapinto’s personal backers.

“We are starting to have a racing team again,” Briatore said. “Pierre (Gasly) is happy with the performance of the car and a lot of things will change again soon in the team.

“We have to be competitive again, be an aggressive team, capable of winning races. I have given myself three years to put Alpine back in its place in Formula 1 because we have everything to do well. Everything.”

Fascinatingly, Nikita Mazepin’s billionaire Russian father Dmitry – formerly with very close ties to team boss Oliver Oakes – was a guest of the Alpine team in Bahrain on Thursday.

So with Alpine closing down its works F1 engine operations at Viry-Chatillon at the end of the year, with the team switching to customer Mercedes power, one is tempted to wonder if the outfit can still be regarded as French.

“We remain a French team, of course,” Renault CEO de Meo insists to France’s Auto Hebdo.

“History has led us in this direction, but if we could find French talent, French sponsors too, we would have them. But we can’t find any.

“So we have to look for opportunities elsewhere. But we still consider Alpine as the French national team in Formula 1.”

Perhaps even more than other teams, Alpine is clearly focusing hardest on the all-new 2026 regulations, with observers describing the new car as being based on a “recycled” 2024 chassis.

“In terms of feeling, I would say it is a continuation of what I felt at the end of last year, with some developments,” French driver Gasly told L’Equipe.

“I think we have a healthy base.”

With rookie Jack Doohan as his teammate, and the prospect of another rookie Colapinto being drafted into the sister cockpit later in the season, Gasly admits that he feels more than ever like a team leader.

“I know that there is a lot of attention on my technical feedback now,” Gasly said. “The team does not hide it. I see that they are all listening to me.

“For me, it is a position that requires a little more responsibility but I appreciate it,” he added. “I feel that there is much more serenity in the team than there was last year at the same time.

“You could almost say that it’s night and day.”