F1 | Alpine background: an A110 Alonso had to be launched!

The president and CEO of Renault, Luca De Meo, took it badly. Very bad. Fernando Alonso’s turnaround was not liked at all. The Asturian, while he was negotiating the contract renewal with Alpine, signed a two-year agreement with Asturian which was formalized by the Silverstone team on 1 August.

One day after the expiry of the option that the transalpine company did not rely on on Oscar Piastri, in the belief that alongside Esteban Ocon in 2022 there would still be the two-time world champion. The Alpine, on the other hand, being able to choose between two pilots, suddenly found itself with empty hands, making up for a planetary fool.

Fernando Alonso, Alpine F1 Team A522

Photo by: Alpine

Net of the management mistakes made by Otmar Szafnauer, Estonian team principal, and Laurent Rossi, big boss of Automobiles Alpine and Alpine F1 Team, the attitude of Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri was in very bad taste.

The break with the French brand, without the Spanish driver having communicated with the top management of the House before the publication of the Aston Martin press release, highlights the desire to put in particular difficulty Szafnauer, the manager who last year had more sometimes perjured with the press that he would not have left the green colors for the Alpine, only to change teams as if nothing had happened.

Rossi and Szafnauer were willing to give the 41-year-old from Oviedo a one-year contract, plus an option in favor of the team for the next one, while in Aston Martin they put a two-year and a bigger stack of money on the scales than what offered by Alpine. Legitimate choices, God forbid, if not for certain questionable behaviors …

Alpine A110

Photo by: Motor1

A background is emerging that makes the whole story even more disturbing: on the occasion of the Japanese GP scheduled in Suzuka on 9 October, the Alpine should have presented a limited version A110 that would have been dedicated to Fernando Alonso. The Renault group was ready to give the two-time world champion an important recognition of his sporting role, a sign that the rumors of a contract renewal were further ahead than it might seem.

The presentation of the “A110 Alonso” was initially scheduled in Monza for the centenary of the Italian GP and then was postponed for a month at Suzuka, but no one will ever see the car dedicated to Fernando born, which will remain a great unfinished …

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