Otmar Szafnauer hits out at “problematic” Alpine management interference
"There’s a few things that went wrong at Alpine, one of which was I didn’t have control over the entire team."
Otmar Szafnauer has described Alpine’s interfering senior management as “problematic”.
Szafnauer was Alpine F1 team principal for approximately 18 months.
His surprise departure was ultimately announced in the middle of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Since leaving the team, Alpine have struggled, dropping to ninth in the constructors’ championship in 2024.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Szafnauer revealed the main problem was that he didn’t have “control” over the entire team despite being team principal.
“There’s a few things that went wrong at Alpine, one of which was I didn’t have control over the entire team,” Szafnauer said.
“So for example, and I knew straight away, HR [human resources] didn’t report to me, reported up through France. The finance office didn’t report to me, reported up through France.
“The communications department didn’t report to me and the marketing group, commercial, didn’t report to me. And that in itself I knew was going to be problematic.
“Before I took the job, it was ‘everyone’s reporting to me’. I get there and that’s not the case.
“And I knew at the beginning – I thought I could manage it, but I knew it’s just problematic.”
Alpine have been one of the biggest disappointments of the 2024 campaign, scoring just 13 points in eight rounds.
They drafted in Flavio Briatore as a senior advisor to turn the team around.
Szafnauer was blunt in assessing his former team’s campaign.
“I don’t know where they are today – ninth or something in the championship – today it’s a disaster,” he added.
“Back then, yeah, it’s a half-step back, but sometimes you take a half-step back to take two steps forward.”
