Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Oliver Oakes has ceased being a person with significant control at junior single-seater team Hitech GP as a new investor joins the team.
The British outfit was founded by Oakes a decade ago, and he remains a director and its team principal. He left the latter role in July 2024 when Alpine signed him to be its Formula 1 team principal, but returned this May after resigning from Alpine.
That came a few days after his brother and fellow Hitech director William Oakes was stopped by police near the team’s headquarters in Silverstone Park, charged with transferring criminal property, summoned to Northampton Magistrates’ Court then remanded in custody.
Hitech appointed Michael William Charles Sanwell-Lewis as finance director in the immediate aftermath, with William Oakes resigning as a director in June.
The next leadership change came on October 10, and was announced today. While Oliver Oakes relinquishes his powers, 61-year-old Singapore-based Chinese national Guocai Liu is now a person with significant control in the team.
Liu holds, directly or indirectly, 75% or more of Hitech’s shares and voting rights within the company, and the right to appoint or remove a majority of the team’s board of directors.
He has also become a shareholder in connected companies HiDAT and Hitech Global Holdings.
“I’m delighted to join forces with Oliver at this significant stage in Hitech’s growth and development and I look forward to working collaboratively in the years ahead,” said Liu, who has shares in companies active in the chemicals industry in China and South East Asia.
Oakes commented that “Mr Liu’s investment provides the resources and strategic support to realise our ambitions for the next decade, while maintaining the values, heritage, and culture that have defined us over the past 10 years”.
Hitech is currently second in Formula 2 and GB3, and earlier this year came second in the British Formula 4 and Formula Winter Series standings and was eighth in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.