"I smell a rat": Pundit's unique take on Alpine's drama involving Oliver Oakes and Flavio Briatore

Renowned F1 pundit Karun Chandhok shared his take on the recent change of position at Alpine. In his recent interview with The F1 Show podcast on Sky Sports, the former F1 driver spoke about the suspicious activity within the Enstone-based team involving Flavio Briatore and Oliver Oakes.

Days after the conclusion of the Miami GP, the team decided to replace Oliver Oakes as its team principal and bring in Flavio Briatore. Briatore, who has been an advisor to the team, took Oakes' place with immediate effect starting this week.

Paddock chatters and rumors suggest that internal politics removed Oakes from his duty as he allegedly wanted to block Colapinto's move into Alpine against Doohan. However, there was no confirmation on this, but Chandhok smells "a rat" nonetheless.

"I smell a rat, Simon," Chandhok told Sky Sports. "I think there's a something more rotten in the state of Alpine, isn't there? He hasn't quit based on just a driver decision here you know. He has not quit the chance to be one of the ten, going to be 11 team principals at the top of the sport, based on who's gonna be on the second seat."

Notably, Briatore has been a controversial figure in Formula 1 and was once banned from the sport for being involved in the infamous Crashgate scandal. It was the race where Renault purposely crashed Nelson Piquet Jr. to help Fernando Alonso win the Singapore GP.

Following this incident, Briatore was away from the sport for over a decade but returned with Alpine to take charge of the struggling team. Fast forward to the present, and he is on the same level as Toto Wolff, Christian Horner, and Fred Vasseur as the team principal of one of the top sides in F1.

---

F1 expert finds Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto on even keel at Alpine

Karun Chandhok also shared his thoughts on how Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto were on par with their racing ability. According to him, there's not much that differentiates the two drivers.

Jack Doohan of Australia and Alpine F1 Team - Source: Getty

He said:

"And really in terms of ability between Doohan and Colapinto, there's not much to choose I think between them, they're sort of same to same. So for me, there's something more going on here that hasn't yet come out in the wash."

Alpine demoted Doohan after the Australian driver failed to deliver performances in the first six races. After Gabriel Bortoleto, he was the most underperforming driver on the current grid, who had never had a better finishing position than P15.

Franco Colapinto, the former reserve driver, who will replace Doohan, has already taken up his role as the second driver. He will race alongside Pierre Gasly from the upcoming Emilia Romagna GP in Italy.