Yahoo Autos Alpine F1 Team Moves Guarantee It Is Eons Away from Titles
Alpine F1 sits sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, 57 point behind fifth-place McLaren.
On the Friday of the Belgian Grand Priz, Alpine announced the exits of Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane.
At this point it’s clear Alpine is not going to be fighting for a title before the 2025-26 timeframe outlined by Szafnauer.
It has been a year since Alpine was thrust into the center of the Formula 1 news cycle when Fernando Alonso upped sticks and left for Aston Martin before prospective replacement Oscar Piastri spurned a promotion having already signed for McLaren.
Alpine’s management took digs at the pair, unfairly questioning the loyalty of youngster Piastri, as attack proved its best form of defence. It was a complex situation but Alpine succeeded in losing a two-time world champion and its highly-rated protégé in one swoop.
As of this year’s summer break, Alonso sits in third in the Drivers’ Championship with a rejuvenated Aston Martin, having taken six podium finishes.
The understated Piastri had to bide his time but McLaren’s sizeable mid-season gains—which it promised pre-season after conceding it initially messed up—has allowed the Australian to show his talent, most notably with a front-row start and second place in Belgium’s Sprint event.
Alpine entered 2023 aiming to retain fourth place in the championship while narrowing the gap to Formula 1’s long-standing big three: Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes.
It has instead been leapfrogged by Aston Martin, which has firmly joined the battle for second-best behind the runaway Red Bulls, and has been overtaken by a resurgent McLaren.
Alpine is sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, facing a 57-point deficit to fifth-place McLaren, the same advantage it has over seventh-placed Williams.
Still, it hasn’t been an unmitigated disaster. Alpine has shown glimpses of promise—and took a podium in Monaco—but there’s clearly pressure from the very top, and that has spiraled into the current situation.
The Shake-Up
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi was displeased after just four races, loading both barrels during select interviews with F1’s website and L’Equipe in Miami, which he proceeded to unload on the F1 team and Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer. Rossi’s tactics, understandably, went down like a lead balloon.
Rossi, who joined in 2021, was moved aside to “special projects” in late July. His successor as CEO, Philippe Krief, “shouldn’t have an impact whatsoever” on the F1 team, said Szafnauer at the time, because his focus would be on Alpine Cars.
Szafnauer added that existing engine chief Bruno Famin taking on the role of vice president of Alpine Motorsport “will just mean that we’re more like-minded in the way we go forward” because of Famin’s previous work at Alpine.
On the Friday of the Belgian Grand Prix, Alpine announced the exits of Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane, while Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry also left after being courted to take the same role at Williams.
Szafnauer was the headline departure, but Permane had been at Enstone for 34 years—through its various guises that included title-winning highs and near-bankruptcy lows—and was a loyal and popular figure who garnered respect. Few in Formula 1 could remember so many senior figures from one team departing mid-weekend.
“I had a timeline in mind for changing the team, making it better,” said Szafnauer, who only joined from Aston Martin in advance of the 2022 season, as quoted by RACER. “That timeline, I thought it was realistic, because I know what it takes.
“I think some of the senior management at Renault had a shorter timeline in mind. I’ve always said Mercedes took five years from buying a winning team. Red Bull took five years from buying Jaguar, which was a pretty solid mid-grid team. It takes time. That’s what it takes.”
