Alpine at Monza disappointed expectations after the podium that Pierre Gasly had deservedly conquered at Zandvoort: the two A523s were not competitive on a track like the Temple of Speed and were never able to fight for the points zone. The blue single-seater caused a sensation due to the exaggerated opening of the bodywork to extract the hot air from the Renault E-Tech RE23 power unit which evidently suffers from overheating even on a track where the opponents showed closed bonnets and bellies in search of the best aerodynamic efficiency .
Luca De Meo, president and CEO of the Renault Group, was careful not to make an appearance in Brianza, aware that the Alpine would have to suffer in the Italian GP, but the 56-year-old Milanese manager did not hold back to comment on the F1 program on the sidelines of the Monaco Motor Show.
Otmar Szafnauer, former Team Principal Alpine
Photo by: Motorsport Images
![Alan Permane, former Alpine Sporting Director](https://cdn-8.motorsport.com/images/mgl/6l9gPvL0/s1000/alan-permane-sporting-director-1.jpg)
Alan Permane, former Alpine Sporting Director
Photo by: FIA Pool
![Pat Fry, former Alpine technical director](https://cdn-3.motorsport.com/images/mgl/YBeAqJl2/s1000/pat-fry-chief-technical-office-1.jpg)
Pat Fry, former Alpine technical director
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The Anglo-French team is in full transformation: at Spa-Francorchamps during the weekend of the Belgian GP the team principal, Otmar Szafnauer, the sporting director, Alan Permane and the technical director, Pat Fry were purged after he was moved the CEO of the brand, Laurent Rossi, also plays a role.
Responsibility for the team has been entrusted to Bruno Famin: the role should be ad interim, but the feeling is that the transalpine could be confirmed, given that he is trying to rebuild a structure that is not getting the results it deserves.
![Bruno Famin, Vice President Alpine Motorsports](https://cdn-6.motorsport.com/images/mgl/6O1335w2/s1000/bruno-famin-vp-alpine-motorspo-1.jpg)
Bruno Famin, Vice President Alpine Motorsports
Photo by: Alpine
Alpine is sixth in the Constructors’ championship, also overtaken by Aston Martin and McLaren, compared to fourth place last year. Luca De Meo did not hesitate to cut the top heads of the team to give a new imprint to the team…
“They promised me things that were not kept – explains De Meo -. When you tell your boss something, then you have to do it: it’s in the dynamics of a company. It seemed like a brutal action, and it was, but we are behind what we set ourselves as goals. Not that I forced them to give themselves targets, but they had given them themselves: they communicated them and this didn’t work because we didn’t have the right trajectory”.
![Luca De Meo, CEO of the Renault Group](https://cdn-1.motorsport.com/images/mgl/YBeq7yJ2/s1000/luca-de-meo-groupe-alpine-chie-1.jpg)
Luca De Meo, CEO of the Renault Group
Photo by: Alpine
De Meo has a pragmatic and sanguine approach…
“I strongly believe in the Alpine project in Formula 1, but many times people who do business can believe that F1 works in the same way. It’s like the entrepreneur who enters politics: I think politics doesn’t work like a business. And in the GPs to find the right alchemy, to do something like Red Bull or like Mercedes did for a long time, you have to keep working, you have to be humble, you have to change things. It’s a complicated game that then suddenly has to start spinning. You have to work on it, you can’t close the box and then talk about it again after five years. We are aware of this, we theoretically have the resources to do well with a team that is quite well financed. And people who don’t work must leave the F1 system: this is high competition…”.
In the paddock there are voices that suggest a possible sale of Alpine to Andretti who is looking for the best way to enter the Circus with the new regulation of 2026…
“I’m disappointed because we did badly in Monza, after a podium in Zandvoort, but we are not at all where we should be. We have to do a relaunch job piece by piece. And all those stories that I would like to sell the team are bullshit… F1 is part of the Alpine project like endurance and other races, so let’s move forward and we need to grow…”.
Clearer than that…
#Meo #selling #Alpine #change