Underperforming Alpine Fires Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer after 18 months

• Alpine, which finished fourth in 2022, is only sixth in this year’s Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship.

• Szafnauer’s exit comes just a week after Alpine removed Laurent Rossi as its CEO and replaced him with Philippe Krief.

• Bruno Famin, who last week was shuffled up to the role of vice president, Alpine Motorsports, will take on the position of interim team principal.

Alpine’s merry-go-round of management has continued with the Renault-owned operation opting to remove team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

Szafnauer, a Romanian-American who attended college in Detroit, was only appointed in early 2022 after moving across from Aston Martin but he will leave his role as team principal following this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Alpine, which finished fourth in 2022, is only sixth in this year’s Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship and has failed to meet its preseason targets.

It has taken a solitary podium finish, in Monaco, and has been passed in the team standings by Aston Martin and in recent events by a resurgent McLaren.

Szafnauer’s exit comes just a week after Alpine removed Laurent Rossi as its CEO and replaced him with Philippe Krief.

Alpine will also part ways with sporting director Alan Permane, who has been with the team for 34 years, while chief technical officer Pat Fry is another departure. Fry will take up the same role at Williams and begin with his new team on November 1.

It is a rarity for a team to undertake several managerial changes in such a short space of time, particularly in the middle of a season, and even less so during an actual race event.

Bruno Famin, who last week was shuffled up to the role of vice president, Alpine Motorsports, will take on the position of interim team principal from the next race in the Netherlands. Current Alpine Academy director Julian Rouse will take on Permane’s role of sporting director on an interim basis.

“We were not on the same line on the timeline to recover the level—or reach the level—of performance we are aiming for,” said Famin on the decision to split from Szafnauer and Permane.

Famin outlined that he will “take the necessary time” to recruit a successor for Szafnauer.

“The results do not match our expectation, clearly,” said Famin on Alpine’s 2023 season. “We were fourth last year, we know the top three is very strong but we were aiming to keep that fourth place and maybe find a little bit more (to catch) the third, but we are not where we wanted.”

Famin went on to explain that Alpine is now in “phase two” of its project, which began in 2021, and asserted that “the expectations are to be able to fight for wins and for titles as soon as possible.”

Alpine’s sackings coincided with confirmation from the F1 Commission, which met on Friday, that analysis of the power unit performance across the first half of 2023 has shown “there is one such notable performance gap between competitors.”

It is understood that this refers to Alpine, which is estimated to be around 30 hp behind its opponents, contributing towards its underwhelming 2023 display.

Per regulations there is a possibility of adjustment for power unit performance, to avoid a significant performance difference being locked in for an extended period, due to the current development freeze. The power unit manufacturers represented in the F1 Commission agreed to give a mandate to the power unit advisory committee to bring proposals to the next meeting.