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Shocking changes at Alpine F1 as Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permane are out
Massive changes continue at Alpine.
Last week the Formula 1 team moved Laurent Rossi out of his position as CEO, replacing him with Philippe Krief as the team’s CEO. Rossi was moved to another position within Alpine, putting him in charge of “special projects.” Bruno Famin was moved into a Vice President position at Alpine, and will be in charge of the F1 team.
But the big news out of F1 on Friday is that more changes are coming. According to multiple reports, first reported by L’Equipe, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane have been dismissed from their positions.
The team subsequently confirmed the news, indicating that both will depart the team following the Belgian Grand Prix. The team described the move with both as being done with “mutual agreement.”
Szafnauer joined Alpine in February of 2022. Permane’s 34 years with the organization now draw to a close.
It has been a rocky calendar year for the team, which has witness McLaren vault above them in the Constructors’ Championship in recent weeks. Rossi blasted the performance of the entire operation as “amateurish” during the Miami Grand Prix, putting Szafnauer under the microscope. The team has also seen some brutal luck, such as the ending of the Australian Grand Prix when under a late-race restart teammates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon collided with each other, knocking both out of a potential points finish.
Last week was another example, where Gasly and Ocon were both knocked out of the race after a faulty start from Zhou Guanyu in the Hungarian Grand Prix caused a chain reaction that saw Zhou run into the back of Daniel Ricciardo, who was pushed into Ocon’s A523. Ocon’s car came off the track before crashing back down on the circuit, impacting Gasly’s A523.
Both drivers saw their days end before they began.
Another aspect to the past year that may have led to the dismissal is how the organization handled their driver lineup for the 2023 season. At the Hungarian Grand Prix a year ago Fernando Alonso announced his shocking move from Alpine to Aston Martin, but as the driver outlined last week, part of the reason for his move is that he never received a new contract offer from Alpine.
“I was more or less happy, but no offer ever came,” Alonso said to Spanish outlet AS. “They were always looking for Piastri, for things like that, and as no offer came in the end this one came. And it was a stroke of luck for my career.”
While the team did pursue Piastri — going as far as to put out a statement that the driver had agreed to a full-time seat with Alpine — Piastri denied the announcement. That touched off a fight between Alpine and McLaren for his services, and the Australian driver is currently a member of McLaren.
Alpine ended up signing Gasly.
Of course, the backdrop to all of these changes is the new ownership group coming aboard at Alpine. At the end of June it was announced that a group of investors purchased a 24% equity stake in the team. Those investors include Otro Capital, RedBird Capital Partners, and Maximum Effort Investments.
Maximum Effort Investments is led by Ryan Reynolds, with co-investors Rob McElhenney and fellow actor Michael B. Jordan. Jordan is also part of the ownership group of A.F.C. Bournemouth.
Time will tell if all these changes will turn the fortunes of the team around.
