It will not have escaped that Alpine is among the Formula 1 teams that have brought the most technical developments: it seems that Enstone are refractory to the spending constraints dictated by the budget cap, yet the transalpine brand has not disregarded the rules of the financial regulation, given who has implemented what they themselves call a “smart” move.
To beat the rise in inflation already at the beginning of the year, the Alpine decided to drain the increase in energy costs. Anticipating that electricity and gas costs would skyrocket in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he pre-purchased as much energy as he could, shielding himself from the higher costs that later blew up energy-consuming bills and transportation.
Having “accumulated” energy at low cost before the terrible price increases, Enstone’s team was able to keep a precious “treasure” that allowed it to invest a greater amount in the development of the A522, allowing Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso to lead the team blue in fourth place in the Constructors’ World Championship.
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal Alpine, with technical director Pat Fry
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
And while rival teams had their headaches in meeting the budget cap for the explosion in energy costs, the Alpine allowed itself the luxury of being able to reinvest, also planning a staff recruitment campaign that strengthened the team.
Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine team principal, is happy that the strategy adopted has allowed the team to save a lot of money…
“We bought energy early and that saved us millions. It was a smart move that allowed us to spend more on developing the machine.”
“We are a team that knows how to work below the budget cap threshold and if we add to this that our financial managers have been good at sniffing the air of a surge in inflation so they have proposed to buy energy in advance. that it would serve us at a very affordable price. This choice has been of great help to us just for this year ”.
Fernando Alonso, Alpine F1 Team A522
Photo by: Alpine
“But also structurally we are organized a little differently: we manage costs better than other teams. All of this gave us that leeway to hire 75 more people without worrying about breaking the cost limit. I think it was a fantastic operation! ”.
Szafnauer also points out that the Alpine also benefited from the extra budget that was granted to the teams at the beginning of the summer to calm the energy costs that had deprived the teams of the resources for the development of the single-seaters …
“The budget cap has grown by $ 4.3 million, a figure that I think will be maintained for next year as well. So the $ 135 million that should have been capped by 2023 will be increased, so we will also have a margin for spending. next year, even if we will not be able to repeat the move that we did this year ”.
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