The concerning questions raised by Alpine’s latest F1 upheaval

Mercedes swears by the ‘no-blame’ culture at Brackley and its ex-head of strategy James Vowles is at pains to instil something similar now he’s in charge of Williams. Meanwhile, the latest Alpine management merry-go-round shows it operates to a philosophy of ‘blame everyone’. 

Laurent Rossi, the now-former CEO, embodied this. After a turbulent start to 2023, he arranged an interview with French broadcaster Canal+ to label his employees as “amateurish”. Shockingly, this didn’t improve internal morale. Perhaps that’s why, around this time, chief technical officer Pat Fry decided to pack his bags for Grove, having been sold a more stable vision by Vowles.

PLUS: The bigger play behind Alpine’s ‘amateurish’ F1 criticisms

Little wonder Alain Prost has since declared Rossi to be “an inept manager who thinks he can overcome his incompetence with his arrogance and his lack of humanity towards his people”. But Rossi’s divisiveness shouldn’t have mattered anymore when, in July, he was moved to work on ‘special projects’. Namely, updating his CV and writing a new cover letter. 

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer suddenly had greater influence. But the overarching Renault Group’s board made the mistake of asking him to cultivate success more or less overnight. When he rightly said that wasn’t realistic, they showed him the door. Likewise, sporting director Alan Permane – an Enstone veteran of 34 years – was handed his P45 for trying to persuade the powers that be to stick to an already-defined 100-race plan that should have borne fruit come 2026.

By our count, Alpine (née Renault) has therefore binned off 12 senior figures in the last five years. This from a team which also let Fernando Alonso defect to upwardly mobile rival Aston Martin and protege Oscar Piastri to McLaren, the latter ending in an embarrassing court case Alpine easily lost. The accepted wisdom in F1 is that to cultivate success you need a well-defined plan of attack, pragmatism and stability to deliver it, plus plenty of cash. Alpine appears to only offer one of those. 

Szafnauer and Permane are the latest two management figures to be shown the door at Alpine

Photo by: Alpine

It all smacks of chaos. When actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney put hands in pockets to contribute towards the recent €200million investment into Alpine, they might have hoped to soon replicate the runaway global success of football-based TV series Welcome to Wrexham. But this management turnover would make even volatile Watford blush. 

PLUS: Why Ryan Reynolds and Alpine show that F1’s boom will outlast Drive to Survive

If there is a defence to be made of Alpine’s clear-out, it’s that new leaders often bring fresh ideas. When the cost cap limits how much teams may overhaul infrastructure, focus turns to chasing the last word in organisational efficiency. Hiring people with an outside perspective and no sentimentality for what went before might expedite this. An attempted reset is the result.

As a result of this chopping and changing, already questions must be asked about the next suite of suits to take charge at Alpine

That said, Szafnauer was only in the job 18 months. Since F1 teams are slow-moving beasts, that’s not enough time to markedly alter the course. In other words, he wasn’t given the chance to fully act upon the outside ideas he brought to the table when replacing longer-lasting predecessor Cyril Abiteboul. 

As a result of this chopping and changing, already questions must be asked about the next suite of suits to take charge at Alpine. Given the ongoing instability, do they lack an awareness for having agreed to come onboard in the first place? Or have they gone in with their eyes open, knowing they might get the boot in double-quick time? The latter should then raise serious questions over their motivation, commitment and true vision for Alpine’s greater good. Are they misguided or downright Machiavellian?

What next at Alpine with Bruno Famin now in charge?

Photo by: Alpine