Alpine announced on Thursday that three key people from its management are leaving. But the whole current series of departures started a little earlier.
Technical boss Pat Fry will leave Alpine after the Belgian Grand Prix, heading to Williams. However, sports chief Alan Permane and especially team boss Otmar Szafnauer, who has been at the helm of the team for only 18 months, are also ending their duties.
Alpine director Laurent Rossi also quit a week ago. He was replaced by Philippe Krief. Rossi then moved on to other “special projects” within the Renault group.
At the start of the year, Rossi drew attention to himself when he publicly criticized his team. “I didn’t like the first grand prix because there was a lot of, I’m sorry to say, amateurism, which led to a result that was not right. It was average, bad,” said Rossi in an interview with France’s Canal+.
Prost tackled Rossi
But it is only part of the departures over the last year and a half. Last year, for example, Alain Prost, who was a non-executive director of Renault, also quit. In an interview with L’Equipe, Prost now took a hard shot at Laurent Rossi.
“First of all, I have to say how much I feel connected to this team,” said Prost. The four-time world champion recalled that Alpine is of course originally Renault and therefore the team “that allowed me to race and fight for the world championship for the first time. And then through my involvement in the current Enstone-Viry structure over the last few years.”
“I like this team and to see them in this state today saddens and troubles me. He deserves better and has what it takes to get there.”
“I’m just convinced that you have to look at history to understand what went wrong. If you look at the great successes of the last thirty years, you will find a simple structure – detached from the industry organizational chart and built around three or four strong personalities in conjunction with a master rider.”
“During my time at Renault, I heard many times in the corridors of the headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt that F1 is a simple sport that can be managed from home if the right people do it.”
“A big mistake, as shown by the last of the managers, Laurent Rossi, with whom Luca de Meo said goodbye a week ago.”
Incompetent leader
“Laurent Rossi is the best example of the Dunning-Kruger effect – that is, an incompetent leader who thinks he can overcome his incompetence with arrogance and a lack of humanity towards his subordinates.”
“A man who had been the boss of Alpine for 18 months thought he understood everything from the beginning. He was completely wrong. His leadership broke the momentum that had been established since 2016 to achieve these podiums and this victory.”
“Hopefully, Friday’s decision to replace more bosses will be a salutary electric shock for the stable.”
“If you look back to when Renault was successful, you will find one man, Flavio Briatore, and a legendary driver, Fernando Alonso, supported by a management that at the time applied a philosophy of rapid decision-making by experts.”
2023-07-28 22:34:40
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