17 February 2023 , 11:11
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Otmar Szafnauer says Fernando Alonso "never" raised any concerns over a lack of ambition while at Alpine and "was as happy as everybody else" with the team's 2022 result.
Alpine saw off the challenge of their McLaren rivals to take fourth place in the constructors' championship last season. It was an improvement on the previous year's fifth-placed finish, and also in terms of points – they scored 18 more than they managed in 2021.
They remain some way off the top three. The gap to Mercedes in third place last year was more than 300 points and Alpine chiefs accept that it will be very difficult to improve by so much in just one season. So the goal for this year is to consolidate fourth and move closer to the 'big three' in terms of performance and results.
Alpine will try to do so without Alonso, who left at the end of last season for Aston Martin. Speaking about what makes his new employer different in his mind, the Spaniard took a very thinly-veiled dig at his former team and hinted at a perceived lack of ambition.
He told reporters: "Everyone here is hungry for success. Maybe they need experience [of] fighting for wins regularly or championships or podiums every weekend but they trust in themselves. They have self confidence and they know that they can achieve that.
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"This is very different compared to any other team that I joined in the last few occasions where maybe they had success in the past and they were just in a comfortable position. They finished fourth and they were happy with fourth. They finished fifth and they were happy with fifth. If we were seventh, it was a celebration. Here there are no celebrations until we win and this is very appealing."
Fernando Alonso departed Alpine on acrimonious terms for Aston Martin (Getty Images)Asked by Mirror Sport if he had a response to that statement, Alpine team principal Szafnauer defended the pleasure they took in their 2022 achievements. He said: "He never raised it [at Alpine]. When we finished fourth, if we look back, he was as happy as everybody else. He was part of the team.
"When the year before you're fifth and your ambition is to move up to fourth, it's not easy to do. We had to beat McLaren – I've been to Woking and when you walk by they've got a massive trophy cabinet, so they're not easy to beat. So I think you have to celebrate those successes when you say 'I want to be in the top four, not fifth'.
"I don't think it's shameful to say 'hey, we've done it, let's celebrate'. For us next year, we can get much closer to third than we were this year – and I'll celebrate that too. If we're closer and the gap isn't that big, that means we're making progress to where we want to go."
Responding to another question about exactly how much closer he wants to be this year, Szafnauer added: "I don't have that crystal ball. But we scraped through to fourth – it was the last race. I'd like it to be comfortable [this year]."