Ex-Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle believes the prospect of Mattia Binotto signing to lead the Alpine team is a possibility going forward.
During the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Alpine announced that team boss Otmar Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane would depart their roles after the event.
In addition, Alpine announced the exit of Pat Fry, who will start work with Williams as its Chief Technical Officer in November this year.
Binotto ran the day-to-day operations of Ferrari for several years, taking over at the helm of the team in 2019.
However, he was ousted at the end of the 2022 campaign following a series of difficult years for Ferrari and replaced by Frederic Vasseur.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 during the weekend, Brundle asserts he wouldn’t be surprised if Alpine acquired Binotto’s signature on the back of the recent departures.
“I’ve heard the same rumour,” Brundle said.
“This is a funny old place as you know, you can start a rumour just for fun and see how quickly it comes back to you as fact. But it’s not out of the question.
“Binotto has got a lot of experience, obviously in the Ferrari system, and knows about running a Formula 1 team.
“Obviously, it didn’t work out for him at Ferrari otherwise he’d still be there. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that was announced, no.”
Currently acting as interim team boss is Bruno Famin, who faced the media shortly after Szafnauer and Permane’s exits were made official.
The Frenchman asserts that as of yet, there are no solid plans in the pipeline to sign replacements.
“We’re not at that stage,” Famin said.
“I think I’m going to, with all my direct reports, assess what is the situation, think about what are the priorities in Enstone, to consolidate the things and we will define if we need a new structure or not and when that will be done, we will see.”
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