Oliver "Oli" Oakes is a British former racing driver, entrepreneur and team principal and director of Hitech GP. He was the 2005 World Karting champion, and was once a part of the

Red Bull Junior Team The Red Bull Junior Team is a driver development program run by the energy drink company Red Bull GmbH in an attempt to identify potential future racing stars in open wheel racing. The similar Red Bull Driver Search, now ended, was an American ...

. Oakes moved into team management when he set up his first karting team in 2011 before launching junior single-seater racing team Hitech GP in 2015.

Biography

Early life

Oakes was born 11 January 1988, the son of Billy Oakes, the founder and owner of the former Formula Renault and

British F3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seat ...

team Eurotek Motorsport. He was educated at The King's School, Ely. He began karting at age 4.

Racing career

Beginning his racing career in karting, Oakes was twice British Open Champion at the age of 12. His karting career ended after winning the Karting World Championship in 2005 at 17 years of age. His performances saw him attract the attention of the Red Bull Young Driver Programme, alongside Formula 1 graduates Sebastian Vettel,

Brendon Hartley Brendon Hartley (born 10 November 1989) is a New Zealand professional racing driver who is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing. He won the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, alongside his t ...

Jaime Alguersuari Jaime Víctor Alguersuari Escudero (; born 23 March 1990), also known as Jaume Alguersuari (), and Squire is a Spanish DJ and retired racing driver best known for competing in Formula One between and , and for being the 2008 British Formula 3 ...

and

Sébastien Buemi Sébastien Olivier Buemi (born 31 October 1988) is a Swiss professional racing driver, who competes in the FIA Formula E Championship for Envision Racing. He competed for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One from 2009 to 2011. After leaving Formula ...

. Moving to car racing in 2006, Oakes debuted in

Formula BMW Formula BMW was a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It was positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category. Like Formula Ford, it was intended to function as the young k ...

with

Carlin Motorsport Carlin, formerly Carlin Motorsport, is a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom. It currently competes in five championships: FIA Formula 2 Championship, FIA Formula 3 Championship, F4 British Championship, BRDC British Formula 3 and ...

, where he took pole and the victory in his first race. Further claiming 3 podiums and a string of strong results, he finished the season in 6th overall in the

Formula BMW UK In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwee ...

Championship. He was nominated for the

McLaren Autosport BRDC Award The Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award is an award set up in 1989 to reward and recognise young racing drivers from the UK. As its names suggest, the award is backed by Aston Martin, motorsport magazine Autosport, and the British Racing Drivers' Cl ...

. In 2007, Oakes joined Motopark for the 2007 Formula Renault Eurocup season in which he finished 12th. Oakes joined Eurotek Motorsport to compete in the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seat ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, taking pole position at the final round at Donington. He moved to

for his 2009 campaign, but left after two rounds. Oakes took up test-driver roles for the rest of 2009 an raced in the

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and th ...

in 2010 for Atech CRS, finishing 28th in the championship.

Post-racing career

Since 2010 Oakes has been involved in various team roles whilst maintaining an ongoing affiliation with Tony Kart.

Team Oakes Racing

Team Oakes is a karting team and management service founded in 2011. Former drivers include

Callum Ilott Callum Benjamin Ilott ( ; born 11 November 1998) is a British racing driver competing in the NTT IndyCar Series for Juncos Hollinger Racing. He was the official reserve driver for Alfa Romeo for the 2021 Formula One World Championship season an ...

, Marcus Armstrong,

Nikita Mazepin Nikita Dmitryevich Mazepin ( rus, Ники́та Дми́триевич Мазе́пин, p=nʲɪˈkʲitə ˈdmʲɪtrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ mɐˈzʲepʲɪn; born 2 March 1999) is a Russian professional racing driver who competes in rally raid. A fo ...

and

Clement Novalak Clement or Clément may refer to: People * Clement (name), a given name and surname * Saint Clement (disambiguation)#People Places * Clément, French Guiana, a town * Clement, Missouri, U.S. * Clement Township, Michigan, U.S. Other uses * ...

. Team Oakes have competed in WSK Championship Events, the German DKM Series and the CIK-FIA World and European Championships.

Hitech GP

Hitech GP was formed in early 2015 with David Hayle who previously formed Hitech Racing in 2003. Hitech currently competes in the FIA Formula 2,

FIA Formula 3 The FIA Formula 3 Championship is a third-tier international single-seater racing championship and organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship launched in 2019 as a feeder series for the FIA Formula 1 ...

and F3 Asian Championship Certified by FIA as well as managing the racing operations of W Series and the

FIA Motorsport Games The FIA Motorsport Games is a multi-sport motorsport events of nations administered by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The first event took place in Italy in 2019 and was won by Russia. The 2020 edition was postponed to 2021, a ...

Racing record

Career summary

† Oakes was a guest driver and ineligible for points.
* Oakes was a invited driver in rounds 9–11 and thus was only eligible for points in rounds 2 and 8.

Complete GP3 Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakes, Oliver 1988 births Living people People from Attleborough English racing drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers Formula 3 Euro Series drivers GP3 Series drivers International Formula Master drivers Formula BMW ADAC drivers Formula BMW UK drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula Renault 2.0 NEC drivers Formula Renault Eurocup drivers Karting World Championship drivers People educated at King's Ely Carlin racing drivers Eurotek Motorsport drivers CRS Racing drivers Euronova Racing drivers Mücke Motorsport drivers Motopark Academy drivers Cram Competition drivers