“Play by the Rules”: Amid Heaps of FIA Criticism, Alpine Honcho Gives a Diplomatic Debrief Despite the Double DNF Mayhem

The day that might have shaped Alpine’s fortunes ended up being a terrifying nightmare. At Albert Park, both French drivers were poised to score some significant points for their teams. However, after the second restart of the race, everything changed drastically. The Alpine squad ultimately left Australia with zero points, resulting in them being one of the biggest losers in the race. However, despite the whole chaos and being affected by some of the major damage, Alpine’s honcho has seemed to provide a diplomatic assessment of the entire situation.

Alpine management found it difficult to accept the fact that both of their vehicles were DNFs. Following the Australian GP, there were calls for F1 to revamp its rules in response to the stewards’ actions. However, the team boss Otmar Szafnauer handled the situation professionally and didn’t express his disagreement with the decision.

Otmar Szafanuer told Autosport, “The rules are how they are, and no matter how they are, you can’t change them during the race. In this situation, if you say, OK, let’s change the rules, because that would have helped, there will be other situations where the opposite happens. My true belief is that we can have these scenarios. You have to set the rules in the beginning and then stick to them.”

Szafnauer’s defense of the actions of FIA does not mean that the alpine management wasn’t trying to persuade the officials to call a halt to the race after the last red flag. While mentioning that the Alpine boss added, “We certainly insisted on that because we would be in a good position. The second safety car line was for turn one, so Pierre probably would have been fourth or something. But I think they made the right decision. Those are the rules, so you have to play by the rules.”

READ MORE: Contradicting Max Verstappen, Rosy Lewis Hamilton Sings a Merry Tune for F1’s Debatable Changes: “Evolving and Assessing”

The French squad was able to stay within the points despite not making any significant improvements to the car.  The team’s confidence might have increased as a result of the car’s genuine speed and decent performance at the Australian GP. And as a consequence, the team boss has made some bold statements.

Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer issues a fair warning to Mercedes

The Alpine team had fought Ferrari well at Albert Park thanks to Gasly’s strong defense, and if it hadn’t been for the Red flag and the mayhem at the Melbourne circuit, the squad might have ended up with a respectable finish. According to Szafnauer, the A523 hasn’t received any major upgrades up until now. However, with a long time between the Australian Grand Prix and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the team will undoubtedly work on the car and create a vehicle that can compete with the Mercedes.

Taking to racingnews365.com Szafnauer said, “No, we think we can fight with them. We too have a decent-size upgrade coming for Baku and then a little bit more only a week later in Miami, so we continue to push the upgrades out. The important thing is that they all work when we put them on the car and we have good correlation with our simulation tools.” When questioned about how far beyond the reach of the alpine the silver Arrows will be.

WATCH THIS STORY: How the 2023 Australian GP Chaos Unfolded in Melbourne?

Do you think the French team can catch the Mercedes at the Azerbaijan GP?