Flavio Briatore reacts after Oliver Oakes quit Alpine F1 with 'completely false' claim

Flavio Briatore has denied the "completely false" suggestion that Oliver Oakes quit as team principal over a disagreement between them. The Brit was only in the role for less than a year until .

That announcement came only 12 hours before it was confirmed that for the next race at Imola. It is understood that decision was taken primarily by , who has assumed control of the responsibilities that previously laid with Oakes.

The timing of the latter's unexpected departure led to suggestions that he and Briatore had disagreed over their driver swap plans. But the Italian insists that is not the case and put out a fresh statement on social media together with the team's official account.

In it, Briatore wrote: "A lot has been said in the past 24 hours, incorrectly associating the decision of Oli resigning to an alleged disagreement, or that we shared different views. This is completely false and far from the truth.

"Me and Oli have a very good relationship and had long-term ambitions to drive this team forward together. We accept Oli's request to resign and have therefore accepted his resignation. The reasons are not related to the team and are of a personal nature.

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"I will continue to be more and more involved with the team, together with the strong management we already have in place. We will work hard on improving our position this season and preparing for 2026."

Perhaps with the intention of driving home the point about their being no animosity between them, Briatore's post also included a statement attributed to Oakes which read: "It's been a privilege to lead everyone at Enstone, what a team, what a place.

"It is a personal decision to for me to step down. Flavio has been like a father to me, nothing but supportive since I took the role, as well as giving me the opportunity. Everyone is in place for 2026 and where this dream deserve to be. I believe in Enstone."

Despite this new statement, it is known that Briatore and Oakes did have different positions on their driver line-up. The outgoing team principal had wanted to give Doohan more time to find his feet, while the latter has been angling to get Colapinto into a race seat for some time.

Doohan's days had looked numbered for some time, though there was a brief period in which it looked like Alpine were poised to give him more time. But his failure to score a single point or to build on the decent underlying pace he had shown in his first few outings put him back on the chopping block.

Despite being removed from his race seat, though, Doohan remains an Alpine driver and is first reserve. Colapinto has been given the next five races to impress with Alpine set to re-evaluate their situation ahead of the in July.