The dismissal of Alpine’s former team boss Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane, according to Alpine’s vice president Bruno Famin will be to the team’s long-term advantage.
Alpine shockingly announced that Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permane will be leaving the team with “immediate effect” ahead of the Belgium Grand Prix.
Szafnauer who is the former team principal, had only joined the Alpine Formula 1 team at the beginning of the 2022 campaign.
However, Permane had been a part of the Enstone squad for an incredible 34 years and was widely regarded as one of the greatest in the sport due to his achievements with Benetton, Renault and Lotus.
Alpine currently ranks sixth in the 2023 constructors championship standings, which is below the standard of performance the top management had anticipated.
Famin is confident that the right choice has been taken, despite the fact that Formula 1 fans and even existing drivers have disputed the matter for a very long time.
“Of course, we get we need a change to share what is going on to see how the situation will evolve,” Famin said.
“But there is absolutely no, no hurry, and in no way what is going on will affect the immediate performance.
“On the other hand, everything we’re doing is to improve the medium long-term performance.”
Famin added that although the process of changes has been ongoing for some time, it wasn’t necessarily intended.
“I had no real idea because the idea was always to be alongside everybody,” he added. “And as I explained in the conference, if the idea is to really to use all the skills on all the people we have at Enstone.
“And at the end if we have chosen mutually to go for different route with with Alan or Otmar on the team is because we were not fully aligned.
“The decision has done has not been taken three months ago. It’s a process where we talk about what we need to do to improve the team to go to the phase two of the Alpine in Formula One project.
“Okay, we say we are not aligned enough, right. But, no plan, there was no plan.”
