In this week of break that will take us to Imola there is a lot of talk about market movements that do not only concern pilots but also technicians and main team. Situations in which Ferrari is often involved, as in the recent exchange with AlphaTauri – which has hired Mekies as team principal from next season. One of the latest rumors, coming from Formula1a.one it concerns a certain movement in the Alpine house, intent on questioning important figures, such as that of the team principal, after a rather problematic start to the season. With this in mind, the team would be evaluating other names to fill that role. And there is a name that most of all attracts the attention of the media when it is mentioned, namely that of Mattia Binotto, former team principal and technical director of Ferrari.
An unsatisfactory start
The Alpine had a rather difficult start. The unsatisfactory performance of the A523 joined truly unfortunate episodes, such as that of the fratricidal clash between Ocon and gasly in Melbourne. In addition to losing points, the French team realized that they are far behind than they would have expected at the beginning of the year. Fourth place in the constructors' standings seems unattainable and this is due to its own demerit but also due to the great leap in quality of Aston Martin, a team that has grown a lot over the past few years. The comparison with Aston weighs and not only because of the results Fernando Alonso, ex Alpine, with 4 podiums in just 5 races with Aston. There was no leap in performance for the Alpine and this led the Chief Executive Officer Laurent Rossi to express his disappointment without beating about the bush, also mentioning the name of team principal Otmar Szafnauer.
Objective remains the fourth force
Alpine's results are still mixed. In Baku, the updates brought did not lead to a step forward, but this was also due to the Sprint format, which significantly reduced the time to test the new features brought. In Miami the team managed to get back into the top 10 with both cars, a goal that was almost never missed last year. The fight for fourth position this year is really tight, every point counts. Removing Red Bull, firmly in the lead, there is a three-way battle for second place between Aston, Ferrari and Mercedes.
Laurent Rossi does not accept a further downgrade, and was clear about Alpine's goal: "The goal was and remains fourth place. This team has progressed over the last two years and is the same as last year and so I won't accept a result other than fourth place. Aston Martin has fewer engineers than us, it doesn't have its own wind tunnel. Resources can therefore not be an excuse. Creativity and efficiency at work make the difference”.
Binotto in Alpine to replace Szafnauer?
However, there are also responsibilities to be attributed to what happened at the start of the season.“Otmar doesn't do everything but the responsibility is his - Rossi says. He was hired to achieve goals that, at the moment, we are not meeting. We started late compared to the others and a difficult year lies ahead. I accept mistakes, but not that they are made twice. It means not learning from mistakes. About this the team has already contacted former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto to put more pressure on Szafnauer. However, again according to what was reported by Formula1a.one, the Lausanne engineer allegedly declined the offer. However, Szafnauer cannot be said to be safe, given that the team does not seem willing to let the matter slip on him. An alternative would be Eric Boullier, a French engineer and manager, who has already covered the role of team principal in Renault and Lotus in his career.
Source: Formu1a.uno
