Alpine, a year ago the Alonso-Piastri case
August 1, 2022: Fernando Alonso announces divorce from Alpine to marry in Aston Martin. The move by the Spaniard, who was celebrating his 41st birthday in the French team pits just a few days earlier, took the whole paddock by surprise, because apart from a few disagreements with teammate Esteban Ocon, there were no signs of an imminent breakdown. And above all, he started a period of anarchy within the team that still lasts.
Alpine reacted promptly by announcing the following day – August 2 – the promotion of Oscar Plates, a member of the Academy that the team believed they had in hand but who had only been around for a few hours was free to talk to the other Formula 1 teams. And in fact contacts with McLaren had already started. A few hours later, the Australian did not scruple to expose the team that had raised him through a tweet that went down in history.
For Alpine it was one planetary foolwhich recourse to the Contract Recognition Board did nothing but exacerbate: the FIA body that resolves disputes between drivers and Formula 1 teams actually agreed with Piastri and his manager Mark Webber, because the contract that linked Piastri to Alpine and received at the institute concerned the Academy, and not the Formula 1 team. A very hard blow, both for the consequences on the track (the Australian is demonstrating his great talent in McLaren with a difficult partner like Lando Norris) and for the image of the team.
From now on the managing director Laurent Reds, who had already made a name for himself as a too decision-making boss to the point of not wanting to listen to any collaborator, took the reins of the team even more in hand. He fired head of legal affairs Benedicte Mercier on the spot and increased her presence both on the track and in press statements. As if to say: no one cheats.
The structure he created himself, with Otmar Szafnauer team principal, Alan It remains sporting director and Pat Fry technical director, however, appeared botched. The ex Aston Martin was announced about a week before the winter tests, also because the former team principal Marcin Budkowski he said goodbye to the team at the beginning of 2022 and was followed a few days later by Alain Prost. In general, the command line has always appeared smoky, with an ineffective division of responsibilities: confusion that also had consequences on the track, because the 2022 relationship between Alonso and Esteban Ocon bordered on the tragicomic, with the Frenchman and the two-time world champion who never missed an opportunity to tease each other during the race weekends, sometimes coming into contact.
The last chapter of the Alpine odyssey is dated July 2023, with the ousting of Rossi by Luca de Meo (President and CEO of Renault). Only a few months earlier, the Frenchman contributed to unnerving the internal climate by threatening the sacking of Szafnauer after the disappointing initial performances in the 2023 World Cup: as is known, not even the American was saved from the wreck, being fired together with Permane and Fry. A choice evidently matured for some time (otherwise the former Ferrari driver would not have had the time to marry Williams immediately afterwards) but communicated immediately after the free practice sessions at Spa. A further lack of style: the latest – hopefully – of a glorious team.
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