Why 'football manager' approach to F1 team principals won't boost Alpine's form

Let's play a game. Eric Boullier, Gerard Lopez, Frederic Vasseur, Cyril Abiteboul, Javi Gracia, Marcin Budkowski, Otmar Szafnauer, and Bruno Famin: which of those individuals hasn't assumed the team principal role at a certain Enstone-based Formula 1 team in the previous 10 years?

Yes, it's Javi Gracia, who was the Watford Football Club manager between January 2018 and September 2019 - and one of the longer-serving ones at that. There's some significance to his inclusion, rather than purely sliding a generic name into an extensive list of ex- and current team principals.

FEATURE: 10 things we learned from the 2023 F1 Belgian GP

It's to do with the unusually high turnover; in the past 10 years, Watford has reeled through 20 different managers in an industry already known for being results-focused to a fault, while the Lotus/Renault/Alpine lineage has cycled through seven different names in the same timeframe. Those examples aren't quite to the same magnitude but, in F1 terms, it's a nonetheless football-esque conveyor belt of management.

Not all of the above have been relieved of their duties, it must be said, as Boullier left to join McLaren and Lopez was moved aside following Renault's purchase of the team from the Luxembourger's Genii Capital investment firm.

Abiteboul was cast aside when the team became Alpine, Budkowski was let go a year later as Laurent Rossi exerted more control over the team, and now Szafnauer has been given the heave-ho after just 18 months in charge. Bruno Famin, formerly of the Renault powertrain project at Viry-Chatillon, will take on the role on an interim basis alongside his new role as vice-president of Alpine Motorsport. It's going to change again at the end of the year.

In football, a similar managerial turnaround would not be entirely out of place. Managers come and go, often leaving to replace their counterparts at other teams. A manager could lose the dressing room, make questionable decisions in the transfer market, or just not perform to the expected level. As such, they can reasonably expect to lose their job owing to the huge sums of money involved in success and failure. It's harsh but, as performances can often turn on a dime simply because a new manager has come in and imbued the team with a bit of confidence, football will forever remain a dynamic pursuit.

Formula 1 is different. Teams still need to be reactive and respond to prevailing trends, but it's equally true that large-scale turnarounds take resources, money, and time. They're engineering businesses, but ones that must ensure freedom in the front lines to make snap decisions depending on the ebb and flow of the season. This must be underpinned with long-term strategy and planning to ensure the team remains competitive for years to come. That's not to say that a management structure can't become stale, but that's an issue to contend with later down the line - not 18 months in.

Long-time technical chief Alan Permane has also left the Enstone outfit

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Now, the team effectively has a caretaker manager in charge for the remainder of the year, which delays long-term planning even further. It does buy Alpine's management time to find a new team principal, and it can rigorously scour the talent pool to find the next person to occupy the middle seat on the pit wall, but the apparent lack of strategy present in the camp would likely prove repellent to a few on its shortlist.

F1 is littered with examples of when boardroom meddling in day-to-day affairs caused issues with on-track performance. It's a trait usually exhibited by, but not exclusive to, large automotive conglomerates looking to run a team a certain way.

Those examples show that running a multi-national automotive concern is not analogous to running a racing outfit, where decisions by committee are often a hindrance at the track. Mercedes was successful when it joined F1 as a full works operation simply because the board let the team get on with it. It was also true of Renault in the mid-2000s, while Ferrari's successful years in F1 were made possible by the boardroom aligning with the team management structure.

It never appeared that Laurent Rossi particularly wanted to work with Szafnauer. The explosive Canal+ interview that emerged during the Miami weekend in which Rossi labelled the team as "dilettantes" set the agenda: this was the boardroom level straying beyond its jurisdiction. Somebody, not involved in the day-to-day operation of the team, suddenly wanted to know why results weren't as expected and then dropped a bomb on it from a height - one believes "seagull management" is the correct parlance here.

For now, Famin is in charge. His job will be to settle the ship and, in the words of football manager-cum-'novelist' Steve Bruce, 'keep things ticking over' until Alpine finds a new person to take the role and lead from the front

In many ways, the Alpine conveyor belt is reminiscent of the managerial revolving door at Jaguar during its five-year tenure in F1. Neil Ressler was put in charge when Ford bought up Stewart Grand Prix, with Wolfgang Reitzle overseeing things as head of Ford's Premier Automotive Group. Ressler moved aside for Bobby Rahal in 2001, who in turn was sidelined when Niki Lauda was brought in.

A reshuffle over the 2002 off-season resulted in Tony Purnell becoming team principal for 2003 and 2004, ahead of the team's purchase by Red Bull. That his successor Christian Horner remains the team principal at Red Bull Racing underlines the stark differences in vision between the two ownership models...

Szafnauer and Alan Permane, who was also relieved of his duties, will be missed at the team. Permane had been at the team since 1989 and, while his role had not been as hands on in recent years, he was still an integral part of the team's management as sporting director and would be a great asset to any of the other teams on the grid. You need only look at the points that Aston Martin's sporting director Andy Stevenson has managed to recoup this year to see the value of experience in that role.

Bruno Famin will take charge of Alpine in the interim

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

For now, Famin is in charge. His job will be to settle the ship and, in the words of football manager-cum-'novelist' Steve Bruce, 'keep things ticking over' until Alpine finds a new person to take the role and lead from the front.

Ex-Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto is one of the names cited as Szafnauer's potential replacement, and it would make sense: he has recent experience of moving a chaotic outfit into contention for wins, can offer guidance and direction to the engine department, and has the wealth of his Ferrari experience to draw upon. But there are other trends to consider when hiring a new team principal: promoting from within (Andrea Stella at McLaren), promoting from within another team (James Vowles at Williams), or promoting from another series entirely (Mike Krack at Aston Martin).

Whomever takes the role, Alpine and Renault must provide the right support to them as it continues to lose staff to other teams - Pat Fry will join Williams as chief technical officer, and it's likely that the current unrest may result in more talent heading towards the exit door. A new team leader needs to be given the keys to go out and bring in the best engineering minds available; after all, Aston Martin and McLaren have long since surpassed Alpine having recognised that, having initially lacked the ingredients to move up the order, it needed to go out and get them.

This latest management upheaval needs to be the start of an actual period of concerted change, and the Renault Group should be supporting the team by putting its money into infrastructure and nurturing talent. Otherwise, changing the figurehead on the pitwall is merely a cosmetic one; without the right tools in place, there's a limited amount that the team can actually grow. And that raises a further question.

When F1's current team bosses were asked about a potential 11th team on the grid, the majority of them explained that they would only welcome it if the new team 'brought something to the table' - be it money, pulling power, or maybe even a certain je ne sais quoi. At this current time, what does Alpine bring to F1 that a new team couldn't? If Renault isn't going to take its own team seriously, it might be best suited to focusing on the engine side and selling the Enstone team to a Michael Andretti-type figure.

Alpine persists in purgatory, and all of the football manager-style hirings and firings can't make up for the ennui that persists around the team. It needs a fresh outlook, and it has the opportunity to make it happen.

Alpine's current approach to management has left it in purgatory

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images