Ex-Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed how the side was operating “double-digit millions” below Formula 1’s budget cap in the year before his arrival.
Szafnauer was hired ahead of the 2022 season and oversaw Alpine’s rise to fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship upon F1’s return to ground effect machinery.
However, the ex-Aston Martin chief was ousted after the Belgian Grand Prix in July this year amid the Enstone-based squad’s slump down to sixth place in the standings.
The FIA imposed a limit on the amount teams could spend for the first time in the sport’s history in 2021 in order to create a more level playing field across the grid.
But despite being backed by parent company Renault, Szafnauer divulged that Alpine had not been working at the initial cost cap of $145 million when he was first appointed.
When Peter Windsor mentioned how a restraint on financial investment had been implemented to bridge the deficit between the top teams and the midfield without recruiting personnel, Szafnauer replied: “Yes, but that assumes you’re already at the cap.
“If you’re not, then there’s headroom to hire. Which we had at Alpine because we were not at the cap.”
He added: “So, when I got there, we were double-digit millions below the cap, so we had headroom to hire.”
Having spent “six months” reviewing Alpine’s operations, Szafnauer admitted that he was shocked there was no set aerodynamics performance group installed at Enstone.
“I always had the philosophy of you shouldn’t make change for the sake of change,” he explained. “You need to have a good understanding and make change in areas that you know are going to be better because you’re changing them, and that’s exactly what I did at Alpine.
“So I took some time, understood the areas that were lacking, and then started making changes.
“When I got there, there was no separate aero performance group for example. And at the bigger teams, they have 20 to 25 people looking at aerodynamic performance right, which is a separate group from the aero group. It’s almost like a vehicle dynamics group, but focused on aero, and Alpine didn’t have that.”
Szafnauer, who remained dedicated to Alpine’s “100-race plan” for delivering F1 success, disclosed that he had begun to make external hires before his dismissal.
“But by the time I left, I recruited a new head of that group, separated it from the aerodynamics group, and then started recruiting people underneath,” he noted. “That’s just one example.”
