Esteban Ocon raced through an apparent altercation between his Alpine team bosses to get the Renault-owned team back on track in Monaco.
Esteban Ocon he raced through an apparent altercation between his Alpine team bosses to get the Renault-owned team back on track in Monaco.
Recently in Miami, it became clear that the new team principal for 2022 Otmar Szafnauer was in the hot seat as CEO of Alpine Laurent Rossi singled it out among Alpine’s failure to improve in 2023.
Rossi used words like “dilettantes” and “amateurs” to describe the Enstone team and pointed out that Szafnauer was obviously the head of the serpent.
When asked about it in Monaco, Szafnauer admitted he would have to make changes.
“We hit most of our targets, not all, over the winter,” he said, “and to hit all of them, we need to make some organizational changes.
“These changes are coming.”
On track, French driver Esteban Ocon had the perfect answer – starting with P3 on the grid and finishing third in Monaco.
Asked what the result meant in the context of CEO Rossi’s recent outbursts, Ocon said: “Why everyone is delighted, that’s for sure.
“Formula 1 is unpredictable,” he added. “You don’t know what’s going to happen and right now, with how tight the pitch is, a little bit more pace could completely change your weekend.
“As I say, we keep pushing, we keep believing and I hope this is the first podium of many,” said Ocon.
And yet, in the background, it’s unclear whether a podium will improve the seemingly strained relationship between team boss Szafnauer and CEO Rossi.
Szafnauer noted that he is not particularly comfortable with the basic management structure at Alpine.
For example, during Zak Brown is the general manager of McLaren Racing, McLaren’s Executive Chairman of the entire McLaren Group is Paul Walsh. Similarly, This is Wolff proves Mercedes‘ The F1 team works, but the Mercedes company is separate.
Rossi, in turn, is president of Alpine Cars, he is also president of the F1 team – sharing power in the paddock with Szafnauer.
“Well, the structure is a bit different than what I’ve been used to in the past,” said Szafnauer, who arrived at Alpine early last year from Aston Martin.
“Technically, we make the decisions and we need to be able to implement the tools, the right people, to be successful. We’re working on it.”
