The 2022 regulation changes brought with it a lot of changes up and down the grid. Amid Red Bull’s dominance, Ferrari’s sudden rise & fall, and Mercedes & McLaren’s struggles; Alpine climbed up—finishing a surprising fourth in the championship. But since the 2023 season started, it has been one challenge after another for the Enstone team. It started the season on the wrong foot, and CEO Laurent Rossi had to give the team a firm warning, even criticizing Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer’s efforts. It looked like its season was turning around when Esteban Ocon finished third in Monaco, shortly after which Alpine received a $218 million investment. But two days ago, Alpine announced that Laurent Rossi had been relieved of his duties.

This came as a shock to almost everyone, considering the vision he had for the team’s climb back to glory. But Alpine made its decision, and former Director of Engineering at Ferrari, Philippe Krief, has succeeded Rossi as the CEO, and Bruno Famin is now the vice president. Apart from letting go of Rossi, Otmar Szafnauer revealed another thing the team had to let go of. After last year’s positive results and a seemingly upward trajectory, Alpine had a goal to finish best-of-the-rest this year as well. But according to Szafnauer, that’s no longer the case.

As quoted by formulapassion.it, he said, “Our goal today is no longer to finish in fourth place in the constructors’ championship. It is a result that is no longer possible.” [Translated by Google] Finishing fourth would’ve always been tough, considering the fight between Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Ferrari for P2 in the championship. And now that McLaren has joined them, it’s an even bigger setback for the team. And unless it makes as significant a step as McLaren has in the past few weeks, it can only finish P6 at best.

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While discussing Rossi’s sacking and the change in management, Szafnauer added, “I don’t know that Rossi will still be involved in F1, in any case the change of CEO will be focused only on the product side. Famin [the vice president] will take care of the motorsport part, and he certainly has the right mentality and experience for the purpose.” The change in Alpine’s target for this season isn’t the biggest news to come out of Enstone this week, though.

Otmar Szafnauer announced an expansion at Enstone

With Ryan Reynolds and his group of investors buying a 24% stake in Alpine with their $218 million funding, there’s no shortage of financial resources in Enstone at the moment. But its factory’s infrastructure isn’t the best, which is why Szafnauer and Alpine have decided to expand their base. 

In an interview after the British GP, Szafnauer said, “We’re in the midst of improving our manufacturing facilities. We’ve purchased a state-of-the-art simulator. There’s a building that’s going in. There’s also a high human performance area that is being developed. Now we’re looking at other simulation tools that we need.”

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But given that they need to consider the cost cap while investing in equipment other than revamping the factory, the team has appealed to the FIA to increase a section of the cost cap to aid Alpine and other teams that need to improve their facilities. As soon as the FIA gives the green light, Alpine hopes to start its upward climb back to glory.

Where do you think Alpine will finish this season?

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