Last week, William Oakes, the brother of former Alpine team boss Oliver Oakes and a director at Hitech Grand Prix, was arrested and charged with transferring criminal property.
He was arrested in the Silverstone Park area of Northamptonshire in the UK with a large amount of cash in his possession, according to the Metropolitan Police.
Following his arrest, he appeared before Northampton Magistrates’ Court on Saturday and was remanded in custody. His brother, Oliver Oakes, resigned as team principal of the Alpine Formula 1 team less than a week later.
Flavio Briatore, executive director at Alpine, denied rumors of a rift at the French side, stating that Oli’s resignation was not due to any disagreements within the team but for personal reasons.
William Oakes, who owns the Hitech Grand Prix F2 team, acquired a controlling stake in the team in 2022 after a takeover from Dmitry Mazepin, the father of ex-F1 racer Nikita Mazepin, who was recently sanctioned by the UK government. Alpine has not commented on William Oakes’ arrest, as it is unrelated to the Formula 1 team.
