In early September, during an interview reflecting on Alpine’s particular difficulties at the time, the Renault-owned French car manufacturer’s boss Laurent Rossi said something about Otmar Szafnauer that caught many people’s attention.
Over the month and a half before that interview, the Alpine Formula 1 team had failed to secure the services of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso for 2023, and was then rejected by its own protégé Oscar Piastri. The young Australian was lured away by McLaren, and Alpine’s attempts to protec its interests via the Contract Recognition Board proved an image disaster – not only was the eventual ruling not in its favour but the details of the case that had made their way into the press betrayed systemic failings in how the Enstone team’s legal department dealt with Piastri.
Yet, speaking of Szafnauer, his boss offered nothing but praise. “Otmar is one of the hires I’m most proud of,” Rossi said.
If casual observers schooled in the reductive thinking of the daily F1 news cycle might think Laurent Rossi is mad, he really isn’t.
While a potential F1 team principal’s CV should definitely include ‘ability to manage drivers’ in the list of skills, Rossi hadn’t hired Szafnauer just to manage two – granted, very important – employees. It was Otmar’s 25 years of experience in various Formula 1 roles across a wide range
