The Alpine implosion

[patmahe]

Where to begin with this one, I can't be sure of timelines, but from memory, we had Cyril Abitaleboul go as team principal, Alain Prost dropped as an advisor, we had the Piastri contract saga last year and now Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permaine gone and Pat Fry being poached by Williams and some sort of weird restructuring at the top of the Renault/Alpine tree.

Then Prost slated Larent Rossi and his management style and in a (pre-departure) interview Otmar said he wouldn't have publicly criticised the team they way Rossi did (maybe the final straw?) and now in the article below Cyril is sticking the boot into his old boss, all 3 saying similar things and making Rossi out to be the problem.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/abiteboul-alpin...

This could be a co-ordinated and unfair attack on Rossi by bitter ex-employees or could their sackings/leaving by mutual consent be a desperate bid by Rossi to be seen to be in control/doing something when he is in fact the problem?

I think Rossi will be gone soon in a final clearout at Alpine and they will either need to start rebuilding (with all the implications of that decision, financial and time-wise) or decide to pull the plug (an opening for Andretti?). There seems little scope for anything in between at this stage.

Would be interested to hear views from others who may know more than me. I just find it incredible that in a sport which needs excellence at every level in order to succeed, there can be such seemingly inept Management at the top. Also, what should Alpine do next?

[patmahe]

thegreenhell said:

patmahe said:

I think Rossi will be gone soon in a final clearout at Alpine

Rossi is already gone from Alpine, shuffled sideways within Renault. The new Alpine CEO is another ex-Ferrari man, Philippe Krief, appointed last week.

Coincidentally, his old colleague Mattia Binotto is currently 'seeking new opportunities', just as Alpine are seeking a new TP and TD, both roles he performed at Ferrari...

Ah right, hard to keep up, so do we think that Alpine is using Ryan's money to turn the team into some sort of lifeboat for quality people who have for whatever reason found themselves as free agents? Binotto would be a good signing, always thought his sacking was unfair. So far Fred hasn't been the saviour they thought he would be (though maybe that will come in 2024).

The whole thing at Alpine seems very knee jerk and political and makes the team's and Renault's upper management look very incompetent if they originally appointed all of these people who have suddenly been deemed unsuitable. I can't imagine this type of thing happening at Red Bull or Mercedes, the types of teams that Alpine say they want to emulate, patience and continuity with minor adjustments along the way seems to be key to success in F1.