F1 Notes From Hungary: New Alpine CEO, Tire Blankets, Budget Cap Investigations and More

Laurent Rossi has been moved aside as CEO of the Alpine Formula 1 team.

Rossi, who joined the company in 2021, had overseen Alpine’s F1 organization but he has now been reassigned onto special projects within the company.

Rossi has been replaced in the F1 CEO role by Philippe Krief. It comes in the wake of Bruno Famin taking on the position of vice president of Alpine Motorsports. Krief is set to take a wider role at Alpine than Rossi and is not expected to have direct involvement on the Formula 1 project.

“Bruno's been with us for over a year in Viry and also in endurance racing and Dakar and this just adds Formula 1—although he was part of Formula 1 already, so, it's not really that big of a change,” said Alpine’s Formula 1 tyeam principal Otmar Szafnauer. “And then on the corporate side, the there's a new CEO of Alpine Cars, whose focus will be Alpine Cars and not Formula 1.”

Hungary Gets a Five-Year Extension

Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix will remain on the calendar through at least 2032 after a five-year extension was agreed.

Formula 1 has raced in Hungary since 1986 at the Hungaroring, located around 12 miles outside of capital Budapest, and only Italy’s Monza has a longer unbroken streak on the calendar. The circuit is set to shortly embark on major renovation works to its main paddock building, main grandstand and spectator zones, with the project expected to be completed in time for the 2026 Grand Prix.

The main paddock building at the Hungaroring is charmingly old-school and has not had significant changes in its near-four-decade existence.

“To see the commitment from the promoter in Hungary to develop the facilities and further enhance the experience for fans is another important step and something we want to see all our events doing in order to continue to improve and make our races even better,” said Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.

The weekend attendance in 2023 was 303,000, up from 290,000 in 2022.

Latifi Goes Back to School

Nicholas Latifi has kept a quiet profile since his three-year Formula 1 stint with Williams came to an end last November. He has now revealed that he has put his racing career on hold in order to study for an MBA at the London Business School.