The energetic simmering of the Alpine F1 team increased to a full rolling boil this week, with a management clean-out executed halfway through a grand prix weekend.
Alpine announced on Friday in Belgium — between practice and qualifying — that its three most senior personnel would be out by the end of the weekend.
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer, legendary sporting director Alan Permane and chief technical officer Pat Fry have now all left the team.
Watch the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix 2023 live and ad-break free in racing on Kayo Sports on Sunday, 29 August, at 11:00pm AEST. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Szafnauer and Permane departed “by mutual agreement”. Fry has taken the same job at Williams.
It’s just the latest in a long line of management reshuffles and restructures at the beleaguered French team that has shattered the veneer of strong, steady, dependable progress up the constructors championship.
But in retrospect it feels like it was only ever really a veneer.
The team’s origins are in bloodshed, Renault having brutally axed principal Cyril Abiteboul at the end of 2020, when Daniel Ricciardo walked out on the team after just two years.
Laurent Rossi was installed as CEO of the newly rebranded Alpine team, and by the end of his first year he’d pushed out four-time champion Alain Prost, expunged technical chief Marcin Budkowski and overseen the exit of engine chief Rémi Taffin. Szafnauer was brought in as team principal.
Six months later Fernando Alonso plunged Alpine into chaos by announcing his intention to switch to Aston Martin. That precipitated a battle for former protégé Oscar Piastri with McLaren. Alpine took the matter to arbitration and lost in a unanimous decision, ha...
[Short citation of 8% of the original article]