Updated:01/19/2022 00:55h
Keep
In the style of soccer leaders, the Alpine F1 team has a presidential executive at the top. Luca de Meo, world CEO of Renault, likes to intervene in all areas of the company’s life and more in the Formula 1 division. It was his bet in a period of crisis for the multinational: De Meo announced the signing of Fernando Alonso immersed in a Renault readjustment plan, 15,000 layoffs in all its branches, equivalent to eight percent of its workforce. The Italian businessman understood that the French brand needed a world star to take flight and hired Alonso in the hope that the new F1 regulations that will come into force this year will give them a chance to return to the elite.
With two months to start the season, De Meo has carried out an intense bustle of changes, exchanges and future additions. Movements in Alonso’s ‘Plan’.
“2021 is a transition season, in 2022 we hope to fight for the podiums,” the ambitious De Meo said in an interview on ABC. In this effort, last week he licensed the Polish engineer Marcin Budkowski, who led the Renault team (later Alpine) from the technical field since 2018 after having been the promoter in the FIA of the current F1 regulations. Budkowski was acting as CEO of Alpine, the number two of the team. His replacement should be the Romanian-American Otmar Szafnauer, who said goodbye to Aston Martin and could come to Alpine with a sponsor, the Austrian water treatment company BWT, which would decorate the blue car in pink.
Less contemplative has been the departure of a motoring legend, Alain Prost, four times world champion in a golden age of F1 racing against Ayrton Senna. The French ex-pilot’s influence on Alpine’s operational decisions was not very significant, beyond his limited functions as an external consultant, but his presence in the team did convey that mark of greatness imposed by the Formula 1 legends who walk around paddocks around the world.
prost gets angry
Prost has been angry about his non-renewal of contract. He has expressed his discomfort with Laurent Rossi, general manager of the team, in an interview with L’Equipe. “Relationships became more and more complicated, I felt that there was a lot of jealousy. Laurent Rossi’s desire is to be alone, that no one contaminate him. He himself told me that he no longer needed an adviser.” He added: “They may not listen to you, but they should at least inform you in time, out of respect. The decisions became complicated. I felt there was a lot of jealousy. When the crew chief doesn’t even say hello when you get to the track it’s because the fun is gone. There’s not even respect anymore, so it can’t work anymore.”
In this situation of change, the only thing intact so far is the pair of pilots. Fernando Alonso is the flagship of Alpine Formula 1, a kind of patron with experience and wisdom, and Esteban Ocon is the project for the future, renewed until 2024 with a clear mission to continue.
See them
comments
.
