Bruno Famin doubles down on reason for Otmar Szafnauer’s Alpine exit

Michelle Foster 19 Aug 2023 12:45 PM

布鲁诺Famin他实例(Otmar翻了一番Szafnauer was let go because “we are not 100 percent aligned”, but says Alpine didn’t lose confidence in the former team boss.

Alpine shocked the Formula 1 paddock when on the eve of the summer break they announced the Belgian Grand Prix would be team boss Szafnauer’s final race, with stalwart Alan Permane also on his way out.

With Szafnauer’s exit coming just 18 months after he joined from Aston Martin, and 34 races into Alpine’s 100-race plan, interim team boss Famin has found himself having to defend the team’s decision.

Alpine interim boss: We never lost confidence in Otmar Szafnauer

“Nobody is saying that Otmar Szafnauer is not good. Otmar and Alan are very experienced people,” he said as perSpeedcafe.

“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 percent 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 percent 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.”

Fourth last season, this year Alpine have aredown in sixth placewith the team lagging 134 points behind the team that currently holds P4, Ferrari.

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“We did not take away anybody,” Famin 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.”

This year’s championship has seen Alpine lose ground to last year’s main rival, McLaren, as well as Aston Martin.

While the latter started the season with a bag, six podiums in the first eight races, it’s McLaren who have come to the fore of late with grand prix podiums at Silverstone and Hungary, and another in Belgium’s sprint race whereAlpine’s Pierre Gasly was P3.

Famin, who two weeks prior was appointed vice president of Alpine Motorsports, added: “We are not where we expected to be. 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.

“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.”