Former Alpine boss Oliver Oakes’ brother charged with transferring criminal property

William Oakes, the brother of former Alpine team boss Oliver Oakes and a director at Hitech Grand Prix, was arrested last week and charged with transferring criminal property.

The 31-year-old was arrested on Thursday (1 May) in the Silverstone Park area of Northamptonshire in the UK, reports the Telegraph. He was subsequently charged with transferring criminal property by the Metropolitan Police.

William Oakes was reportedly stopped with “a large amount of cash” in his possession, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told the Telegraph. After his arrest, he appeared before Northampton Magistrates’ Court on Saturday (3 May) and was remanded in custody.

Less than a week after his brother was arrested, Oliver Oakes resigned as team principal of the Alpine Formula 1 team. Following his resignation, executive director at the team, Flavio Briatore, attempted to deny rumours of a rift at the French side.

"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," Briatore said in a joint Instagram post with Alpine.

"Me and Oli have a very good relationship and had long-term ambitions to drive this team forward together. We respect 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.”

William Oakes own racing credentials relate to his ownership of the Hitech Grand Prix F2 team.

The Briton took over as a director of the team in 2022, after forming a new company that acquired a controlling stake in the side from the father of ex-f1 racer Nikita Mazepin, Dmitry Mazepin. The takeover of Dmitry Mazepin’s shares in the single-seater team came just three days after the Russian, who has close ties to Vladimir Putin, was sanctioned by the UK government over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Alpine has not commented on William Oakes' arrest as it does not relate to the Formula 1 team.