Alpine declaration about Otmar Szafnauer months on from sacking speaks volumes

11 January 2024 , 18:15

492     0

Otmar Szafnauer was axed by Alpine mid-season in 2023 (Image: Getty Images)

Alpine continue to back their decision to sack team principal Otmar Szafnauer in the middle of last season, claiming the drastic move has "untapped some potential" from staff.

Szafnauer joined Alpine ahead of the 2022 campaign after leaving Aston Martin. But he was in charge of the Renault-owned squad for just 18 months before it was announced that he and sporting director Alan Permane had been relieved of their duties.

It remains to be seen whether the move will have the desired effect. Alpine vice president of motorsport Bruno Famin stepped in to take charge on an interim basis, and the team did score points more consistently in the second half of the season.

But the French squad still finished sixth in the championship, two places below their result from the previous year and some way off their rivals above. Famin remains in charge and is expected to lead the team into the new season, with no news of a permanent successor to Szafnauer.

Still, though, Famin insists the team is better off without the Romanian-American boss, claiming staff stepped up their game after his exit. "With the changes we made mid-season we untapped some potential in people," the Frenchman said.

Sebastian Vettel warns of looming F1 ban and is "very worried about the future"

"People are much freer to propose things, to improve things, especially true on the trackside where immediately I saw a change in the mindset. For example, we promoted Rob Cherry [to race team manager] and Dylan Milligan [to chief mechanic] and they are doing a very good job in proposing improvement, and in making sure their guys also propose things.

"I think all of this potential was a bit capped until the end of July, and I'm very happy with that. It's true for the garage, true also for the track engineering, true for the strategy. We are daring to do things we were not daring to do before.

"We are delivering more hardware, using more potential of the car, extracting more performance from the car, and I'm very happy with that mindset.

"We have a lot of talent, and we need to help them to bring new ideas in developing the car but also in the way we work. The idea is to develop the potential of the full team, to develop the potential of the car, and to get a better car and better results."

Technical director Matt Harman has pledged Alpine will head into the 2024 season with a "front-to-back new" F1 car which they hope will push them back up towards competing in the top half of the standings. The Enstone-based team is due to unveil their latest machine in early February.

Daniel Moxon