Alpine Interim Team Principal Bruno Famin claims he “never lost confidence” in Otmar Szafnauer’s abilities to lead a side despite the decision to part ways.
It was announced during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend last month that Szafnauer and long-serving Sporting Director Alan Permane would be leaving the Enstone squad.
The pair’s exit come amid a disastrous season for Alpine, who have fallen to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship after accruing only 57 points in the first 12 rounds.
Famin, who previously discussed that Szafnauer was “not on the same timeline” regarding the side’s ambitions, has reaffirmed that the veteran Formula 1 chief’s departure was entirely based on upholding different visions for the future.
“Nobody is saying that Otmar Szafnauer is not good,” Famin contended. “Otmar and Alan are very experienced people.”
“They are real assets for a team, we know that perfectly, but with this kind of challenge, the competition is very hard, you need to be 100 per cent aligned to have everybody working closely together and this was not the case anymore.
“We never lost confidence. When we are developing these kinds of projects, we really need to be on the same line with all the team, the top management of the team.
“We were working together, and at one stage we realised we were not on the same line on a couple of topics.
“The competition is so hard, and if we are not 100 per cent aligned, we all have enough experience to know that it is useless to continue together, and everybody has to learn to go his own route.
“We did not take away anybody,” he continued. “We have just chosen to go a different route because we were not falling in line.
“When I say I never lost confidence in Otmar, it’s because I know his skills, I know his background, and I know, like Alan, they are very good professionals of Formula 1.
“But we need to be on the same line, and we were not.”
Despite a tough campaign to this point, Famin insists that Alpine remains fixated on the 100-race plan that then-CEO Laurent Rossi revealed towards the end of 2021.
However, the Alpine Vice-President has conceded that the Anglo-French outfit is playing catch up, with both Aston Martin and McLaren usurping the team this year.
“We are not where we expected to be,” he admitted. Maybe we have not improved enough, the competitors have improved.
“They’ve shown they were able to make big changes and we were able to go that route as well.
“We are working. All the people in Enstone are working all together, and everybody’s working hard on developing the best possible car,” he added.
“We need to change a lot of things, in the mindset, on the general spirit but it’s one of the things we will see in the assessment.”
Ahead of the F1 season resuming with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort this weekend, Alpine currently lies exactly 46 points behind McLaren and ahead of Williams.
