Alpine issue SAVAGE reasoning behind high-profile F1 sackings

Alpine

Alpine issue SAVAGE reasoning behind high-profile F1 sackings

Alpine's vice president insist they made the right decision to sack two members of their senior management team

Jenny Craig

Wednesday 9 August 2023 15:57

Alpine's vice president, Bruno Famin, believes that the departure of sporting director Alan Permane and former team principal Otmar Szafnauer will benefit the team in the long-term.

Ahead of the last race in Belgium, Alpine shockingly announced that the pair would be leaving the team with 'immediate effect'.

Former team principal, Szafnauer, had only been with the team since the start of the 2022 season.

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Permane however, had been with the Enstone team for an astonishing 34 years, and was regarded by many to be one of the best in the business due to his experience and his success with Benetton, Renault and Lotus.

Alpine haven't been performing to the level expected by those in senior management as the team currently stand sixth in the 2023 standings.

Famin's long term goal for the team

Bruno Famin will take charge as interim team principal for Alpine after Otmar Szafnauer's departure

Although the decision has been debated long and hard on by F1 fans and even by current drivers, Famin is sure that the right decision has been made.

He told the F1 Nation podcast: "Of course, we get we need a change to share what is going on to see how the situation will evolve but there is absolutely no, no hurry, and in no way what is going on will affect the immediate performance. On the other [hand], everything we're doing is to improve the medium long-term performance."

He also stated that it wasn't necessarily planned, but the process of change has been going on for a while.

”I had no real idea because the idea was always to be alongside everybody," he added. "And as I explained in the conference, if the idea is to really to use all the skills on all the people we have at Enstone and at the end if we have chosen mutually to go for different route with with Alan or Otmar on the team is because we were not fully aligned.

“The decision has done has not been taken three months ago. It's a process where we talk about what we need to do to improve the team to go to the phase two of the Alpine in Formula One project. Okay, we say we are not aligned enough, right. But, no plan, there was no plan.”