The Alpine success story that’s been overshadowed by its driver market chaos

OPINION: The Alpine Formula 1 team has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons of late following its contract dispute with Oscar Piastri. On track though, the Enstone-based squad is improving its A522 in a methodical and impressive fashion which is yielding results

Jonathan Noble Sep 8, 2022, 9:24 AM

Upd: Sep 8, 2022, 9:51 AM

Formula 1 teams at their peak often mirror the famous analogy of a swan. Graceful in the public eye as they claim multiple victories with apparent ease above the surface, but below the surface is a flurry of frantic action. That flurry is the hard graft behind closed doors. For the Alpine team, there is almost an opposite situation going on right now between the frenzied perception it faces in the outside world and what’s really going on calmly behind the scenes.

The shell shock loss of Fernando Alonso, and the mess over its handling of Oscar Piastri – with even the CRB lawyers labelling it ‘shilly-shallying’ – has delivered the impression of a team in chaos and in need of a reset.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.