“Resources Do Not Match Ambitions”: Harsh Reality Shoved Down Alpine’s Throat Amid Turbulent Transition

The first half of the 2023 Formula 1 season has been a rollercoaster for Alpine, to say the least. Here’s all that happened: The Enstone team started the year on the back foot. Considering it finished fourth in the championship last season, now-former CEO Laurent Rossi and the Renault administration gave the team a warning to start performing. A few weeks later, a $218 million investment was injected into Alpine to help with its goals. While things did start looking up, Alpine quickly returned to the status quo, which led to Laurent Rossi’s ouster. And a few days later, three key figures—including Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer—left the team. It’s safe to say Alpine’s administrative shake-up has been haywire, and former Alpine director, Marcin Budkowski, explained a possible cause for the turbulence.

This isn’t the first time Alpine is going through a managerial shake-up. In fact, Budkowski was part of one before the 2022 season started, where he was—much like Szafnauer—ousted from the team after spending a year as its director. Not only does he know how these things play out but also what goes on inside the team. And he revealed what the problem with Alpine has been over the years.

As quoted by f1maximaal.nl, Budkowski said, “The problem with Renault in Formula 1 has always been that the ambitions were very high, but the financial resources were insufficient. Every year the ambitions got higher and higher, but the resources that were put into it did not.” [Translated by Google]

This is exactly what happened this season. After finishing fourth last year, Alpine was automatically expected to perform as well as it did last season without taking into consideration the resources that would be required to do so, given how other teams have also taken a big step this season.

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This ambitious difference between the Alpine administration and the team at Enstone is what led to the ousters of Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane. And Szafnauer shot Alpine a strong message before leaving while explaining his situation.

Otmar Szafnauer legitimized Marcin Budkowski’s statement

Marcin Budkowski was promoted as director in 2021 when Renault rebranded to Alpine. With the rebranding, Renault and Alpine administration set a goal to return to the front of the field within 100 races. But when Budkowski was replaced by Szafnauer last season, Alpine promised Szafnauer another 100 races to fulfill its goal. And despite receiving the whopping $218 million investment less than two months ago, Alpine sacked Szafnauer even before he reached his 40-race mark because he believed it would take until 2026 to achieve that goal.

In an interview at the Belgian GP, he said, “The reality is that changes take time. I signed some good people from other teams, but they are still stuck in their contracts and won’t come until 2024 or join the team in 2025. You can’t really push development if people aren’t there. I always say: You can’t get nine women pregnant and hope you have a baby in a month.” In F1, team personnel are nothing short of resources, and Alpine didn’t give Szafnauer the time he needed to take full advantage of the resources that were on their way.

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What do you think has been Alpine’s biggest problem in F1?