Otmar Szafnauer has been appointed as the new Team Principal of Alpine ahead of the 2022 season.
Szafnauer left Aston Martin at the start of this year after a 12-year spell at the Silverstone-based outfit.
He had been linked to Alpine for several months and on Thursday the Renault-owned outfit formally confirmed his appointment.
In a restructured management team Bruno Famin has been appointed as Executive Director of Alpine Racing in France, overseeing its power unit development, while Davide Brivio shifts to the role of Director of Racing Expansion Projects.
All three will be part of the Alpine Management Committee that reports to Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi.
“With Otmar and Bruno joining the team, we move to a new level for 2022,” said Rossi.
“Otmar will bring his unique experience in motorsports and his uncompromising desire to win, while Bruno’s proven track record in building technologies that make a difference in competition and their subsequent transference to road cars is critical for our project as a sports team and as a brand.
“Over the past year I have seen Davide’s talent to identify the best in people, and to make them perform as well as they can.
“I am delighted to utilise this unique skill across all existing Alpine assets and new ones we are just starting to explore. Our band of racers is complete and ready to bring the team towards its ambitious objectives in 2022.”
I hope the very talented and personable Otmar does not come to regret joining Alpine and manages to carve himself an effective space in their convoluted and obscure management structure. For the last few years it has seemed a team with too many chiefs and not enough Indians (hoping that is not now a politically incorrect phrase).
Once again Szafnauer has made himself look stupid. Firstly he left Aston Martin, having repeatedly denied that he would be doing so, and now he has compounded his ludicrous behaviour by joining Alpine following repeated denials of that also. If he wasn’t cleared to confirm the move at the times he was asked about it, the sensible thing would have been to decline to comment. Certainly, it would have saved him appearing to be a fool and a liar.