Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has warned that changes will be implemented at the Formula 1 team if rapid improvements to its form are not forthcoming.
The French side finished fourth in the Constructors’ Championship last year and ahead of the 2023 season, Esteban Ocon set his sights on retaining that position while closing on Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.
But it quickly became apparent during pre-season testing that, not only had Alpine struggled to show significant signs of troubling the top three, it had also been surpassed by Aston Martin.
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Ocon and new team-mate Pierre Gasly have scored 14 points between them, and they currently find themselves sixth in the standings behind McLaren, who has been notably underwhelming at a handful of races so far this year.
The Enstone-based side has walked out of two of the first five races this year scoreless and has a best finish of eighth.
A lack of pace, coupled with errors over the course of the opening exchanges this season, have irritated Rossi.
“We started the season behind development targets,” he told F1.com. “We were lacking performance compared to where we wanted to be to cement P4.
“We have made a lot of mistakes, too many mistakes, over the weekend. When you compound that relatively lower performance and lack of operational excellence you end up in a difficult position.
“It makes for a difficult year ahead. The season is still young. I don’t want to give up, but a couple of things need to change. We need to continue reinforcing the team to get the performance back.
“One of the things that needs to change, as it’s largely the same team as last year, is mindset. It is something that needs to change for people in the team now and new people we are going to add.”
The Frenchman warned his team members that they must learn from their mistakes and start improving Alpine’s performance.
“It starts with owning up to your mistakes, to not repeat the mistakes, to learn from your mistakes,” explained Rossi.
“It’s okay to make mistakes, it’s not okay to make them twice because it means you didn’t learn. This year, there is a lot of excuses which lead to poor performance and a lack of operational excellence.
“I need to tackle this, I need the right people to tackle this. I need the team to be aware they need to do that as it’s not up to me – it’s up to them, they have to do it. It’s their responsibility. I hope they make the same diagnosis. I will make it clear to them that this is the diagnosis and they need to fix that.”
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer said ahead of the season that Alpine is aiming to develop at a “higher rate” than the rest of the field. Rossi reiterated that it is the Romanian American’s duty to oversee the team’s turnaround in form.
“He is responsible for the performance of the team, that’s his job,” he added. “There is no hiding here. Otmar was brought in to steer the team, through the season and the next seasons towards the objectives that we have, which is to constantly make progress, as we did in the first two years – fifth and fourth – and to get to the podiums and therefore, this is his mission to turn this team around and bring it to the performance that we want.
“We had a team that performed reasonably well last year, got the fourth position which is the best improvement we had in a long time. It showed a lot of promise. It’s more of less the same people so I don’t accept that we are not capable of maintaining that.
“Yes, it is Otmar and the rest of his team as Otmar alone doesn’t do everything, but the buck stops with Otmar. It’s Otmar’s responsibility, yes.”
Rossi stated that it is “too early” to write off the goal of retaining fourth in the Constructors’ Championship this year, adding that it will be a “failure” should Alpine finish lower.
He also threatened that there will be “consequences” if the picture does not brighten soon for his team.
“If they fail by giving 500% best and turning this ship around, there will be extenuating circumstances and it bodes well for the future,” he said.
“If not, it’s the rule of business, there’s going to be consequences. And I won’t wait until the end of the year. The trajectory is not good. We need to fix the mindset of the team ASAP.”
