Alpine Drops F1 Team Boss Otmar Szafnauer
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In January 2022, Aston Martin F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer made a surprising move to Alpine's rival Formula 1 operation. Just 18 months later, Szafnauer's time at the top of the French team has already come to an equally surprising end.
Szafnauer's departure was announced Friday, alongside that of sporting director Alan Permane. Both will leave the team during F1's traditional Summer Break, which starts after the end of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix. The decision to leave has been called "mutual" by newly-appointed interim team principal Bruno Famin. Szafnauer joined from Aston Martin in 2022 at the direction of Alpine's then-CEO Laurent Rossi, who was demoted to a position focused on "special projects" earlier this week.
While Szafnauer had been with the team for just a year and a half, Permane had been with the operation since it ran as Benetton F1 in 1989. He saw the Enstone-based program run as Benetton, Renault, Lotus, Renault again, and finally Alpine over 34 years and three constructor's championships. Now, he is caught up in the latest restructuring of a program that has seen so little stability.
Alpine's inability to make a serious move up the Formula 1 grid has been a source of major disappointment throughout the past six years, but the team has been the most consistent mid-fielder in the sport since 2017. The brand has finished between sixth and fourth in each of the past six seasons, a trend that looks set to continue as it sits sixth in this year's constructor's standings. The new leadership team that will be tasked to move the program up the grid has not yet been announced, but the latest wave of firings suggests that Renault and Alpine executives consider another year of moderately impressive mid-pack performance to be an unacceptable outcome.
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