Alpine boss Oliver Oakes is adamant that switch to Mercedes engines and downsizing workforce was necessary.

After the various comings and goings at Enstone over the last few years, Alpine will be heading into 2025 hoping that its significant overhaul will reap dividends.

Flavio Briatore was brought back into the fold, while, former racer and Hitech GP founder, Oakes was also lured, as Renault CEO Luca de Meo sought to give the team stability not to mention the genuine feel of the multi-billion dollar price tag he had attached to the French team.

Along with the various high profile departures over the last couple of years it is easy to forget how the team allowed talents like Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso to slip through its fingers.

The most controversial part of the overhaul was undoubtedly the decision to stop using Renault engines and become a customer of Mercedes, while also shedding around 200 people from its workforce.

Oakes believes the decisions were necessary and will in time prove justified.

"I'd say we're now around 900," he tells Motorsport.com.

"Obviously everyone in F1 talks about headcount," he adds. "And some people calculate that as whether you're counting people in cap, out of cap, whether you're producing your own gearbox and suspension or not. I dare say we're one of the sort of smaller outfits now, considering we do the whole car."

While in nowhere near as bad shape as Williams, where, on arrival, James Vowles declared much of the infrastructure to be decades out of date, Enstone was also desperately in need of investment with a new dyno and simulator high on the 'wish list'.

"Enstone has been there a long time," explains Oakes. "The walls have got more history in F1 than most factories, but we've got the right amount of resources. The main resource today is good people, and we've got a lot of great people there.

"There has been a lot of investment the past few years, which also shows the support and commitment from the group at the end of the day," he continues. "We've got a new simulator, new dyno, all those things that probably haven't been spoken about, but we have everything we need. But we are continuing to invest.

"That's one thing that's amazed me in F1," he admits, "it's not just the wish list of what they want on the race car. It's also all the toys around that. It never stops."

Under the new regime there is no timeframe, no five or ten year target, and while the late-season resurgence offers hope, there are still many who believe the French team is simply being 'freshened up' in a bid to make it more attractive to potential buyers, possibly Oakes himself.