Formula 1: Alpine announces Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permane departure amid management changes
Posted : 28 July 2023
Alpine has announced that they will be parting ways with team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane after the Belgian Grand Prix. The decision comes amidst a series of management changes at the team due to their disappointing performance this season.
In addition to Szafnauer and Permane, Alpine is also losing their chief technical officer Pat Fry, who will be taking on the same role at Williams later this year. The team has fallen short of the targets they had set for themselves, currently sitting in sixth place and being overtaken by both Aston Martin and McLaren.
These changes follow the recent shift of former Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi into a new role in special projects at Renault, with Philippe Krief taking over as the new CEO. Two weeks prior, Bruno Famin was named vice-president of Alpine Motorsport.
According to Famin, the decisions were made with the aim of reaching higher performance levels. He explained that there were differences in the timeline and approach to achieving their goals between the team and the departing officials.
Otmar Szafnauer joined Alpine from Aston Martin, where he served as team principal since 2018 when the team was known as Racing Point before becoming Aston Martin in 2021. Prior to that, he was a senior executive at the team in its previous form as Force India.
Alan Permane has been with the team in various roles for an impressive 34 years, starting with Benetton in 1989, which later transformed into Renault, then Lotus, and eventually Alpine. He became the sporting director in 2012 and played a central role in the team's operations over the past decade.
Both Szafnauer and Permane will remain in their positions until the end of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend before departing. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner praised Permane's three-decade-long tenure with the team and expressed confidence that he won't be unemployed for long due to his competence and experience.
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