During the Belgian race weekend, Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permain unexpectedly lost their leadership positions in Alpine F1, and the Renault factory team was temporarily led by Bruno Famen. Around this time, Laurent Rossi, the former CEO of Alpine, was transferred to a job outside motorsport.
The initiator of these radical measures and the restructuring process in Alpine was Luca de Meo, head of the Renault group. After his dismissal, Szafnauer, speaking about the reasons for this, accused the management of the French group of lack of patience and lack of understanding of the patterns inherent in Formula 1.
De Meo did not respond to the former Alpine F1 chief’s words at the time, but he does now: “They made certain promises to me, but they did not keep them. If you say something to your boss, you have to do it, that is the dynamic of the company.”
Presumably the head of the company means that Rossi promised in 100 races to turn Alpine into a team that would qualify for victories in the world championship. And although about 30 races have passed since then, and even fewer under Szafnauer, the results did not arouse much optimism, especially since engine development has been frozen until 2026, meaning that it will be virtually impossible to overcome the power deficit of the Renault power plants to work. . Unless of course it is possible to somehow reach an agreement with the FIA and all participants in the championship.
After fourteen stages of the season, Alpine is only sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, clearly behind McLaren, which is one stripe higher, even though the team’s drivers reached the podium a few times – Esteban Ocon followed in Monaco, Pierre Gasly in Zandvoort .
Continuing the conversation about the reasons for recent personnel decisions, Luca de Meo emphasized: “I did not force them to set such goals, they set them for themselves, but they did not succeed.”
Also, the executive director of the Renault Group again categorically rejected rumors about the possible end of the concern’s Formula 1 program and the sale of the team: “All these stories told about our team are complete nonsense. Formula 1 is as important to the Alpine project as endurance racing and other forms of motorsport, so we will continue to progress and develop…’
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
