Alpine admit having 'no plan' for Szafnauer axe as likely replacement emerges

09 August 2023 , 16:55

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Alpine admit having 'no plan' for Szafnauer axe as likely replacement emerges

Bruno Famin has admitted there was "no plan" for Alpine to cut ties with Otmar Szafnauer before the decision was made to do exactly that.

Szafnauer joined the team ahead of the 2022 season and guided them to a fourth-placed finish in the constructors' standings. It was regarded as an impressive success for Alpine, to see off rivals McLaren and finish as best of the rest behind F1's 'big three'.

But results so far this season have not been as impressive and the team sits sixth in the standings. Suddenly at the beginning of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, the team announced that it would be Szafnauer's last Grand Prix in charge.

It quickly became clear that the decision was driven by the board at Renault, which owns the team and the Alpine brand. Szafnauer had not been on board with the timeline for success expected by those in power at the French carmaker.

Bruno Famin, Alpine's vice-president of motorsport, is in temporary charge until a permanent successor is appointed. And the Frenchman has admitted that, although there has been an ongoing process of change behind the scenes, axing Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane was not part of the plan.

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"I had no real idea because the idea was always to be alongside everybody," he said. "If the idea is to really to use all the skills on all the people we have at Enstone and at the end if we have chosen mutually to go for a different route with Alan or Otmar on the team is because we were not fully aligned.

"The decision has not been taken three months ago. It's a process where we talk about what we need to do to improve the team to go to the phase two of the 'Alpine in Formula 1' project. Okay, we say we are not aligned enough, right. But, no plan, there was no plan."

Alpine have said they will not rush to appoint Szafnauer's permanent successor. But Mattia Binotto has been strongly tipped to take over as team principal of the Enstone squad after recent appearances in the F1 paddock.

The Italian resigned as Ferrari boss at the end of last season and has been away from the sport on gardening leave since. Renault chief executive Luca de Meo has reportedly chosen Binotto as his preferred candidate, but it remains to be seen whether his Ferrari exit deal would allow him to take on the job before the end of this season.

Daniel Moxon