Otmar Szafnauer Speaks Out About Alpine/Renault

[cosworth151]

Otmar Szafnauer had spoken out about the situation at Alpine. He says the corporate structure was far too controlling:

“The parent company wanted to have a lot of control in a lot of areas of the racing team. More than I’ve ever seen before. You know, the commercial area, the marketing area, HR, finance, communication, all that stuff reported not to me, but around me, to somebody else in the bigger organization, and they all act like a navy, and we have to be pirates in order to win.

“So if you say all else equal – the cars (are) equal, the drivers are equal, the powertrain’s equal, your knowledge of the tires is… but what isn’t equal is the fact that a Mercedes or a Red Bull have HR, finance – especially finance now because of the cost cap – all the commercial aspects and communication reporting to Christian (Horner) and we don’t, guess who’s going win? Red Bull."

If that's the case, Binotto's move from Ferrari might be moving from the frying pan into the fire.

https://racer.com/2023/08/14/szafnauer-criticizes-renault-for-being-too-controlling/

[Jericoke]

Certainly Ferrari has as much corporate meddling as Alpine does... Ferrari just happens to be a corporation that knows the sport a little better.

I think that Binotto got where he was at Ferrari by understanding the political game like no other current team principal in the sport today.  I'm not saying that he can win at Alpine (should he take the position), but I think he'll be better at turning the ship around than Szafnauer or Abiteboul ever could.  As much as I'd like 'car guys' running an F1 team, a political beast is what Alpine needs right now.

[John S]

As much as I'd like 'car guys' running an F1 team, a political beast is what Alpine needs right now.

Hope you're not suggesting that Binotto is not a 'car guy' Jeri?

I get where your coming from in that anyone who can survive Ferrari for so long has political nounce, but to my way of thinking Binotto was too much a 'car guy' in the end to get on top of the machinations in the different departments and power blocks that make up the Scuderia.

He'll probably be a good fit for Alpine/Renault at this time though.

Oh and Otmar must have known he was getting into a nest of vipers when he took the job, most of the DPs have chats from time to time. Cyril Abiteboul and Marcin Budkowski had certainly been around the paddock for years and are bound to have relayed to others the more restrictive system of Head office inerference placed on Enstone.
Hell, Christian Horner, and probably most other TPs, knew damn well Cyril's hands were tied by the hierachy at Renault during the famous spats about Renault power units in the new era after 2016, Cyril was in a no win cul de sac and simply had to soak up the pressure as best he could.