Ferrari Schumacher success a driving force for Alpine

Alpine

Ferrari Schumacher success a driving force for Alpine

Executive director Marcin Budkowski was a Ferrari engineer between 2002 and 2007

Ewan Gale

Saturday 6 March 2021 16:00

Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski has said he hopes to take inspiration from his time at Ferrari during the team's golden era as the French team aims for Formula 1 success.

Budkowski was an engineer during the Ferrari-Michael Schumacher heyday in the early 2000s before moving on to work at McLaren, the FIA and, most recently, Renault before the rebranding to Alpine.

As the historic Alpine name enters F1 for the first time, the Pole will look to draw upon his experiences to drive the team up the grid.

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"[It was a] different era. I was extremely lucky in my career," Budkowski said of his time at Ferrari.

"I was an engineer, I was contributing to the development of the car. Now I am much more in a management position and contributing to the performance of the organisation rather than the performance of the car itself.

"But certainly, being a part of such a successful organisation, one that was part of dominating the sport at the time is something that you remember.

"You remember some of the things that you were doing right and certainly that is something I take inspiration from now in my management role to try to build a team as strong as the one we had at the time."

During his time at Ferrari, the team won three consecutive driver-constructor championship doubles, the last in a string of five for the Scuderia and Schumacher.

But Budkowski has warned any translation will not be simple due to the different role he holds now compared to his previous placements.

"Actually, I started at Prost Grand Prix with Alain Prost who is now a special advisor to our team," added Budkowski.

"I was extremely lucky to be part of an era at Ferrari under Jean Todt, with Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and Michael Schumacher, with all these great names, some of them are still key names in the sport.

"Mattia Binotto was there, James Allison, the old team-mates from this period. But it was a completely different role at the time."