Otmar Szafnauer Hits Back at Alpine’s ‘Impatient’ Leadership 5 Months After Getting Axed

Rewind to the 2023 Belgian GP weekend. Out of the blue, before track action started at Spa-Francorchamps, Alpine announced that Otmar Szafnaeur would not continue as the Enstone outfit’s team principal. It’s safe to say that everyone was surprised. While the 2022 season might not have been anything to write home about for the French team, it was to be expected, considering it was a transitional season for the team.

When Szafnauer made his exit after serving only one year as Team Principal, it raised a lot of eyebrows. Five months after the fact, the former Aston Martin and Alpine Team Principal opened up about the impatient Alpine management.

Alpine’s greed for immediate success

Otmar Szafnauer recently appeared on F1 expert Peter Windsor’s YouTube channel, where they discussed a lot of different topics. When the former Team Principal opened up about the circumstances surrounding his exit, it definitely piqued many an ear.

Szafnauer explained, “I think we were moving in the right direction. The fact that the senior managers at Alpine wanted success much quicker than was possible is, I think, what went wrong. Having explained to them that it takes time to recruit in the areas that need bolstering, only because the best people are on two- to three-year contracts still. What you want to do is you’ve to get the best people you can and not just anybody. You should wait for the contracts to run out and convince them to come. And it will, for sure, turn around, but it takes time.” But time is what Alpine didn’t give Szafnauer.

He then talked about how teams start to negotiate contracts a year before personnel’s previous ones expire, making it extremely difficult for talent to shift from one team to another. While it would definitely not be impossible, it would most likely take a couple of years, at the least, before teams can see tangible results.

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Despite these difficulties, Szafnauer did manage to recruit 70-80 people from other teams, which helped Alpine develop a foundation for the 2023 season and the ones to follow. However, with 2023 being another transition year for the French team, it had to compete only with itself and finished 6th ahead of Williams – a result that it’d be hoping to forget about soon.

A look back at Alpine’s 2023

Alpine’s 2023 season was tumultuous, to say the least. Having finished 4th in the Constructors’ Championship in 2022, it hoped to continue its form in 2023, finishing in P4 or better and also ahead of rivals McLaren. However, with results like double DNFs in Australia (among other venues) and Esteban Ocon getting a lot of penalties throughout the season, things unfortunately didn’t end well for the French outfit.

It did have some pretty decent highs, though – like Ocon’s podium finish at Monaco, Pierre Gasly‘s P3 in Zandvoort, as well as his entire weekend in Austin, Texas. However, one thing is for sure. Alpine didn’t capitalize on McLaren’s poor start to the season, which cost the team dearly.

However, Bruno Famin, the interim team principal, did state that a revival is on the cards. He remains hopeful for the future and is currently focusing on ensuring that Alpine’s Enstone and Viry units work in tandem to create a competitive car for 2024.

How do you think Alpine will fare next season? Will it come back stronger next year and fight McLaren and the other frontrunners in the Constructors’? Let us know below.

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