Alpine appoints Szafnauer as F1 team principal for 2022

As part of wider changes to the management structure, the ex-Aston Martin boss joins Alpine for the forthcoming season, replacing Marcin Budkowski, who left the team last month.

Szafnauer will be team principal while Laurent Rossi remains as Alpine’s CEO.

Bruno Famin has been appointed executive director of Alpine Racing, with his background mainly in endurance racing with Peugeot.

Davide Brivio will now be director of racing expansion projects after joining the team at the start of last season from Suzuki in MotoGP.

Speaking of the news, Szafnauer said: “I am thrilled to join BWT Alpine F1 Team and ready to get to work with everyone to achieve our challenge: bring the team to fight for the Championship within the next 100 races. My attention is focused on preparing for the start of the season in Bahrain.

“As one of the three car manufacturers involved in Formula 1, Alpine is fully armed to achieve its ambition, I can’t wait to start the journey!”

Rossi added: “With Otmar and Bruno joining the team, we move to a new level for 2022. Otmar will bring his unique experience in motorsports and his uncompromising desire to win, while Bruno’s proven track record in building technologies that make a difference in competition and their subsequent transference to road cars is critical for our project as a sports team and as a brand.

“Over the past year I have seen Davide’s talent to identify the best in people, and to make them perform as well as they can. I am delighted to utilize this unique skill across all existing Alpine assets and new ones we are just starting to explore. Our band of racers is complete and ready to bring the team towards its ambitious objectives in 2022.”

Alpine will be the penultimate team to unveil its 2021 F1 car, revealing it just two days before testing gets underway on February 21.

Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon will remain with the team for a second season.