Martin Brundle reveals BRUTAL F1 sacking caught him off guard

Brundle, Bahrain, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

Martin Brundle

Brundle reveals 'BRUTAL' F1 sacking caught him off guard

F1 pundit shocked at revelation of change in personnel at Alpine

Lauren Sneath

Thursday 3 August 2023 21:42

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Martin Brundle has revealed that he believes the sacking of Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane during the Belgian Grand Prix was ‘brutal’.

Over the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, the French team revealed the sudden departures of the team principal and the sporting director.

Both were due to the leave the team with immediate effect after the race, following the recently departed Laurent Rossi, the brand’s CEO, and engineer Pat Fry.

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Fry has since taken a top technical role at Williams, but Szafnauer is set to take a period of garden leave before a new role.

Brundle: I’m taken aback

F1 pundit Brundle explained his opinion of the surprising turn of events in his column for Sky Sports F1 after the Belgian Grand Prix.

He wrote: “Pierre Gasly took third position in the Sprint which was a massive bonus for him and his Alpine team who appear to have accelerated their revolving door senior management style.

“We covered that in Sky programming over the weekend, but I'm still taken aback by their wholesale forced departure of experienced F1 folk, and apparently with more to come."

Otmar Szafnauer has left Alpine suddenly

He added: “I must assume there are wise and knowledgeable people incoming that we've yet to hear about.

“Publicly binning team boss Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane mid-event while they still had a job to do on the pit wall was brutal even by F1's less-than-impressive standards in this respect.”