Formula 1
Why Alpine has abandoned its no F1 team boss structure
Alpine's announcement that Otmar Szafnauer is joining it as team principal comes just one year after the Formula 1 team famously embraced a no-boss structure.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Feb 19, 2022, 3:44 PM
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As it headed into the 2021 campaign under its new identity, the Enstone-based squad elected to have a pretty unique management system in place.
It did away with having a designated team boss and instead had a triumvirate running things: Laurent Rossi as CEO, Marcin Budkowski as executive director and Davide Brivio as racing director.
But as the team's form plateaued en route to fifth place in the constructors' championship last year, Rossi was open that he needed to shake things up for 2022 and beyond if the team was going to hit the front.
The result is that of the three men that were at the helm, two of them are now no longer directly involved in the F1 team.
Budkowski departed the operation completely over the winter, while Brivio has been moved into a new role overseeing Alpine's young drivers and its racing activities elsewhere.
Now, Alpine has a designated team principal in Otmar Szafnauer and he will work alongside former FIA and Peugeot man Bruno Famin, who will head Renault's Viry operations.
But while the new structure seems to suggest that Alpine's old plan did not work, Rossi sees things differently.
He is clear that 'it did not not work'. Instead, he suggests that a no boss approach for 2021 was bred by necessity, following the late departure of former team principal Cyril Abiteboul.
"I would say that that was the best configuration with what we had, as you can't replace a seasoned team manager like Cyril overnight," Rossi told selected media including Motorsport.com in an interview discussing the team overhaul.
Third place Fernando Alonso, Alpine celebrates with Laurent Rossi, Alpine CEO
Photo by: Alpine
"You can also not build a structure like the Alpine one, which was newly created, by simply deciding to put new people in place. It takes a bit of time to find the right people in the right place.
"That combination of the three of us last year was bringing each their own specificities and skills, which enabled us to never look stupid on the track. That's the most important.
"We went through the season, we never made a fool of ourselves, it was just fine. But now was it the right structure to move forward and take the team to the next level?
"The team has been plateauing and rather was in almost a negative slope. Fourth in 2018, fifth in 2019, and 2020. And then last year fifth, but everyone knows that had [Yuki] Tsunoda been at the level of Pierre [Gasly], maybe it would have been a different story.
"So it was certainly reaching a good level of operation as best of the rest. But it was not what was needed for the next challenges. And this is where I decided that, to get there we need to reinforce the team, I can go back to a structure more conventional.
"That is because Otmar has way more experience than the three of us last year put together in Formula 1. He has the pedigree, and he has the skills. So now we have a team principal and he is a team principal."
Szafnauer arrives with a strong reputation, having helped drive Team Silverstone (Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin) to podiums and victories in F1 despite it never being the most flush with cash.
Rossi sees the American-Romanian's engineering background, as well as knowledge of working within big manufacturers like Ford and Honda, as critical to helping achieve better unity across Alpine's Enstone and Viry facilities.
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal and CEO, Aston Martin F1
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
"He's obviously a senior engineer, which doesn't hurt. We already have top engineers in our team, but he's also going to bring in addition to that, clear leadership, and team-building capabilities.
"That's precisely what Otmar is going bring. He's done it in the past, very brilliantly, especially with limited means at Force India and then Racing Point. He's going to do it again with us."
Where Rossi believes Alpine has been lacking is in making the most of being a works team. He suggests that the chassis and engine side have not been as integrated as needed. And that meant the team was missing making the most of all its strengths.
"It was obvious that we needed to have someone that's combining or marshalling the resources across the three sides [engine, chassis and track].
"I needed someone who's capable of making that bridge first. Because if you really want to be a works team, you really need to have Viry and Enstone taking to each other.
"Otherwise, you're just a customer team, which is the worst because you're paying for the engine and the development, but you behave like a customer team. So you're not really a works team."
As well as the Szafnauer/Famin alliance, Alpine has also restructured its technical structure, with Pat Fry stepping up into a CTO position and Matt Harman, a former head of powertrain integration at Mercedes, taking the technical director role.
Rossi added: "Matt is bringing with him a PU engineer background, and a great capability of designing a car, since he's the one who was heading the design office.
"He has that nice blend of being a versatile generalist in terms of understanding all of the areas of the globe, but being also an expert at the PU. In doing so, we're going to reinforce a capability of integrating the PU into the chassis, which will bring performance on the PU, which is important, and on the chassis.
"Those two were clearly areas that were making the difference and the gap with the best teams up until now. So hopefully we correct that."
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A521
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
Ultimately in F1 though, structures aren't what you are judged on, it's only car performance that matters.
After three years of finishing fifth in the standing, it is clear Alpine wants to and needs to do better. But is Rossi confident that Alpine now has what it takes to take on the might of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari?
"If I'm going to be brutally honest, we were not necessarily capable of competing with these guys, for sure - because otherwise we would, simple as that," he said.
"The truth of the track is impossible to deny. But we've already made changes and we'll carry on make changes to a structure, to the way we do things.
"It is not like fundamental changes, it is here or there just learning from the best."
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