Motor racing-Alpine boss Oakes has Red Bull as a reference point
By Alan Baldwin
LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) -Oliver Oakes and Christian Horner were the Formula One bosses with most to celebrate after last Sunday's Sao Paulo Grand Prix and while poles apart in terms of success they have much in common.
Alpine's Oakes, the newest and youngest principal in the paddock at 36, has followed a remarkably similar career path to Red Bull's Horner, now 50 but the youngest boss in the sport's history when he arrived some 20 years ago.
The 2005 karting world champion, ex-Red Bull junior driver and founder of Hitech GP in F2 and F3, Oakes was appointed by Alpine's owners Renault in July to sort out their struggling team.
Horner, who turned to management with Arden International when his junior career ran out of road, arrived at Red Bull after they bought Jaguar from Ford and he was tasked with turning them into winners.
Both Britons had previously tried to secure Formula One teams of their own.
"I think it sort of only dawned on me really taking this role, some of those similarities," Oakes, who was backed by Red Bull at the same time as now-retired four-times F1 champion Sebastian Vettel, told Reuters before the Brazil weekend.
"I guess it's something to aspire to as well in terms of what they (Red Bull) have achieved."
Sunday was Oakes' first F1 podium as boss and it came in a race won by Red Bull (Max Verstappen).
Horner's first podium was in a 2006 race won by Renault (Fernando Alonso).
Both principals have worked closely with Red Bull's Helmut Marko, now 81, who oversees the junior driver programme. Oakes still speaks to him regularly.
"That's more friendship as well as things to do with the day job. He's been a big mentor to me over the years, carrot and stick approach of Helmut as everyone knows. But he's phenomenal," he said.
"That team, that company, what they've achieved -- the triangular management approach there with (now-departed designer) Adrian (Newey), Helmut, Christian all together. They have been the sort of reference point for a lot of people."
BRIATORE BENEFIT
Sunday's shock result, with Esteban Ocon second and Pierre Gasly third, lifted Alpine from ninth to sixth as the day's top scorers.
Former boss Flavio Briatore, now a consultant to Renault Group head Luca de Meo just as Marko was the link man for Red Bull's late founder Dietrich Mateschitz, was quick to congratulate.
"Working with Flavio, who I've only just really got to know closely in these past four or five months, I think the first thing that stands out is they're not here for the bullshit," said Oakes of the Italian and de Meo.
"They're here to go racing. And they're massively important because actually, you know, they just cut to the point. And I think often that's what you need if you want to bring performance."
The car's future engine was one of the first big issues, with Renault deciding to give up making their own from 2026 and buy in from outside.
Staff at Renault's Viry-Chatillon plant near Paris were up in arms but Oakes respected the decision.
"I just want the best engine for the team," he said. "F1, as we can see at the moment, is a very tight battle at the front and also at the midfield. And therefore, selfishly, that's what I want.
"I wouldn't say there was a mandate (for Alpine) to be a French team. There is a mandate to be the best Formula One team you can be."
Oakes said his age, as a boss in a paddock where young rookies will make up a fifth of the grid next season, was just a number.
"I started racing as a four year old and then I was karting until I was 16, 17. And then I continued until I was 23 in formula cars," he said. "I can't think what age I was when I started Hitech, I want to say my late 20s.
"I kind of don't feel young. I feel like I've been in racing forever."
Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis
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