![]() ![]() "But it's amazing what a team of people that have the same goal, that are pulling in the same direction, with the same fire in their belly, the same racing spirit, can actually do." "Then suddenly we went from ninth to fourth and people thought, 'How the heck did you do this? You don't have any money.' At the at the beginning nobody noticed, which was even better. He continued: "It's how I did it at Silverstone, it took a long time. Managing a team through tight budgets during the cost cap era in F1 is experience Szafnauer can draw on, as Alpine emerge as front-running contenders. Prior to joining Alpine, Szafnauer was one of the main figures at Aston Martin, leading the team through its years as Force India and Racing Point at their Silverstone base. But I believe in a better place than we were a year ago." I think it's changing and there's some people who have recently joined that I know, but it takes time. "To be able to take risks and fail, and not be afraid to do that. "There's a bit of culture change that's happening, having collaboration among team members, having the psychological safety," he explains. He believes this has put them in a better position compared to the start of 2022. Szafnauer says this approach is creating a culture change within the team, enabling more people to take risks. This is one of the benefits of being a works-entity in F1, as it means a considerable number of components can be produced in-house without the need to outsource. One of the ways in which Alpine are trying to achieve that higher rate of development is through having more multidisciplinary engineers, instead of having specialists in one specific area within the team. Szafnauer: Culture change happening at Alpine For us to be able to do that, we've got to develop at a higher rate than every other team." "We've got to improve, we've got to not scrape by in fourth, but be solidly there and closer to third. "It's great to have the support of Luca and Laurent, not only for all of us that are here, but it's also a statement to everybody at Viry and Enstone that they're serious," says Szafnauer at the A523 launch. ![]() It tee'd up what was meant to be a return to the forefront of the grid, with Alpine Chief Executive Officer Laurent Rossi appointing Otmar Szafnauer as Team Principal and former Peugeot Sport boss Bruno Famin leading the power unit effort.Īfter those appointments Rossi said the F1 team was now "complete" and that 2022 was the year they would "move to a new level." But, in reality, it was much more like their days as the Renault works squad between 20: midfield results coupled with poor power unit reliability.įor the 2023 season, the team unveiled the A523 at a glitzy event in London, in what felt like a statement of intent from the outfit as they brought out the bigwigs and boasted about their ambitions. The team won their first race under the 'Alpine' guise at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix and achieved further podium success at the Qatar Grand Prix, capping off the season in better shape than Ferrari. Although the 2022 F1 season was branded a success by Alpine after they scraped fourth in the Constructors' Championship ahead of McLaren, it was still a year of unfulfilled potential for Enstone. ![]()
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