Otmar Szafnauer joins Alpine as team principal in restructure

Otmar Szafnauer has joined Alpine as team principal as part of a wider management restructure of the Renault-owned F1 team.

The ex-Aston Martin team boss will bring “technical knowledge and leadership to build the team across multiple areas,” chief executive officer Laurent Rossi says.

It sees Alpine return to a traditional organisation after an unusual three-man senior management team last year.

Rossi said the changes were needed.

He added it would “take the team to the next level”.

Alpine finished fifth in the championship last year, the third consecutive season in that position for the team that used to be called Renault.

Rossi admitted they had only not slumped to sixth because rookie Yuki Tsunoda in the faster Alpha Tauri car was not on the same level as his team-mate Pierre Gasly.

Rossi said this proved Alpine were “plateauing in almost a negative slope” and that changes needed to be made.

He insisted the old management structure was “working fine” but that it was “obvious we needed someone” who could “oversee operations and development” across all three aspects of the team – the chassis base in the UK, the engine factory at Viry-Chatillon near Paris, and trackside at races.

Of the three pillars of Alpine’s 2021 top management, only Rossi remains.

Former executive director Marcin Budkowski left Alpine last month. Davide Brivio, recruited from MotoGP for last season as racing director, has been moved to a new role as director of racing expansion projects, essentially overseeing Alpine’s driver-development programme.

At the same time, Bruno Famin, the former deputy secretary-general for sport at governing body the FIA, has been recruited as executive director of Alpine at Viry-Chatillon, responsible for power-unit development.

These moves follow last month’s restructure of the technical department at their base at Enstone in Oxfordshire in which former chassis design head Pat Fry was promoted to chief technical officer and Matt Harman, formerly engineering director, to technical director.

Rossi said the changes were a result of Alpine’s development as an organisation, following Renault chief executive officer Luca de Meo’s decision last year to rebrand the F1 team after the French car giant’s niche sportscar division and integrate the road-car and racing operations under one leader.

“It takes a bit of time to find the right people in the right places,” said Rossi, who is going into his second year in charge of Alpine.

“The combination of the three of us last year enabled us to never look stupid on track. That’s the most important thing.

“In that respect, it worked. We went through the season. We never made a fool of ourselves. It was just fine. But was it the right structure to take the team to the next level? It was not what was needed for the next challenges.

“I decided we needed to reinforce the team and in so doing go back to a more conventional rigid structure because Otmar has way more experience in F1 than the three of us had last year. He has the pedigree and he has the skills.”