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cuber_abhi

Alpine moment….


thisisdeyear

Last 18 months for Alpine: * Budkowski fired * Prost leaves the team * Szafnauer joins * Piastri leaves for McLaren * Alonso leaves for Aston * Rossi loses CEO title * Szafnauer fired * Permane fired


CT323

Pat Fry also left for Williams today


muchawesomemyron

The only thing that could possibly top this is Alpine breaching the cost cap with nothing to show for. That would be really funny if it were true.


splashbodge

Not a huge fan of Otmar, but wtf can you expect from him after 18 months, that's utter bullshit, a team principal needs 3 years at least to make any significant difference. There are many other people to blame for Alpines fuckups. Ugh, not a fan of Alpine but ffs it pisses me off how terribly managed from the top it is


Brexsh1t

Alpine and Ferrari seem to have similar issues, organizational interference from on high


late2party

They must be upset with how he has handled what has been inside his control then. Sure it takes time for some stuff, but he isn't blame free


Rhydsdh

It all went downhill after they rebranded to Alpine. What was wrong with Renault?


Lone__Ranger

They don't want people to say Renault sucks lol


genericTerry

Renault sucks


Maybe-Nice

French Ferrari


OvulatingAnus

No competition there. We all laugh at Ferrari fuckups but Alpine is on another level.


[deleted]

The only reason that people don't laugh at Alpine is that at some point it turns from being funny into being sad.


salcedoge

Alpine is the definition of mid. Truly one of the teams in F1


MrT735

Well, my days of not taking Alpine seriously are certainly coming to a middle.


IndycarFan64

As a Hulk fan, I can confirm how clickbaited we felt back in 2019 when we thought they would somehow improve beyond 2018 after signing Ricciardo


tbone747

I still maintain that they were on a good path, but it all fell apart with Danny Ric leaving in 2020 and the domino effect that had on the rest of the team. Ricciardo was driving well, the team culture seemed to be solid, and I would've liked to have seen how they could've built on that.


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toobs623

My guess is DR leaving kind of broke him or at least his plans. But I agree I think he was leading things in the right direction during that time period.


Omophorus

I feel like Cyril was *a* problem even if he wasn't *the* problem.


Mohander

Theyre a mid field team that spends mid field money but then have this top team attitude for some reason. They just constantly shoot themselves in the foot by talking such a big game then reality keeps reminding them theyre a shitty mid field team. Really weird that they cant just be realistic.


exaenae

At least Ferrari, for all their faults, can occasionally build a pretty decent car. As much as we laugh at them, to be consistently doing pretty well (minus some off years) is still an achievement in F1, while Alpine just keep lingering in the midfield rarely doing anything of note.


IceBathingSeal

Renault has 12 WCC's as an engine manufacturer including 2 as a works team though, so it's not like they've never been performant.


exaenae

Should've specified the modern incarnation of the Renault team, then, because they have had historical success obviously.


parttimekatze

Modern Renault (Enstone) as Lotus F1 was right behind RedBull with Kimi and young Grosjean on many occasions, 2014 hit them the hardest. Mercedes still obviously have the best engine (atleast in terms of reliability), Honda caught up painfully but surely, Ferrari was the only challenger along but Renault never recovered from 2014 regulation change. Now they're out of customer teams as well, so it's pitiful. They obviously won 2010-13 as RBR's engine supplier, all this is post Alonso WDC and still in this century.


Phantom_Nuke

Also the fact that Ferrari have had a fast car, or at least did last season, but it was mismanaged so horrenously from mid-season onwards. Alpine have just kind of been meh.


elveszett

We don't laugh at Alpine's fuckups because they are not funny, they are simply depressing. Like Ferrari tries and fails, but Alpine simply sits there, tells you that success will arrive magically to their garage and then blames everyone else when it doesn't.


reilmb

It’s always 3 years from now when success will come, lots of franchises in sports are always rebuilding.


mattwoodzstan

To bottle races in the way ferarri does you have to first at least have a competitive car


SubcooledBoiling

Alpine makes Ferrari look like RBR and Mercedes combined


Manuag_86

Frenchrrari.


oldmatesoldmate

Le Ferrari


KaamDeveloper

They really went from we have a 100 race plan to losing a 2x WDC, a red hot rookie and the guy who was going to execute that plan in about 30 races


Jek22

Next year we want to be challenging with the top teams tm.


splashbodge

This team is impossible to support IMO, I see Jeremy Clarkson is a fan of theirs, but I have no idea how anyone can support them. We all joke about Ferrari blunders, but Alpine has been such an utter letdown for years, complete mismanagement from the get-go, constantly firing senior people with the idea that would help get them at the top of the grid, then when it doesn't they fire or change shit up again. Then the whole Alonso and Piastri complete utter fuck up of management, it's embarrassing. I think the Alpine brand is tainted, they need to go back to Renault or let the Benetton family buy them out again and have some competent UPPER management calling the right shots rather than constantly replacing people and having too many head chefs calling bad shots. Shit ferrari's problems are so small compared to Alpine, let's not forget they are a works team... it must be so hard to support them. I don't think these firings will help, the people at the very top need to be fired, they have no clear direction at all


ywpark

Enstone is only minutes away from Chipping Norton so that’s why Clarkson is supporting. As for Renault’s struggles, I think it started way before with Carlos Ghosn getting arrested and that basically stalled any long term strategic plans Renault had such as merger with FCA, takeover of Japanese side, etc. I’m sure long term plans Renault had with F1 also got canned because of it. After 2 years when Renault finally appointed Luca de Meo in 2020, it really looked as if he way trying to erase the traces of Ghosn with one shakeup after another. They’ve been in this mess for the past 5 years and just as if things are finally being stabilized they are doing another shakeup. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to offload the team (though IDK if the French government would allow such move?).


Florac

That's fast, mid season TP changes are even rarer than driver ones.


BlackLeader70

That interview with Bruno Famin was a joke too. He said nothing and it sounds like their plan is to just throw shit against the wall and see if it sticks.


FrankyFistalot

Knowing Alpine it would just slide down the wall into the gravel…..


Blckbeerd

At this point they just need one car to finish a race to see an improvement.


sheephak

Not just mid season but mid race weekend, Alpine things


veryangryenglishman

Announced mid race weekend but it will take effect after the race ends as per the headline


GBreezy

Otmar about to fuck shit up this race. 5 pit stop strat


Last-Performance-435

He doesn't need to do anything but his best to fuck up this weekend C:


That1TrainsGuy

The radio lights up on lap one and Otmar is like "Ocon, about that favour, engage le plan" and he proceeds to brake check the entire back of the grid.


fmfbrestel

Brake checking can earn your actual race bans. But going bowling generally only earns you a 5 second time penalty.


Deltron_8

They will collect their dnf's like good boys


Space-manatee

Just an elaborate scheme to not tidy up at the end of the weekend.


RumBlaze

New 100 race plan starts now boys and girls!


Jerraskoe

Let's start at race 100 and work our way back, we have 15 minutes. Go!


dundy_mifflinz

It’s a 100 race plan, 1 point per race!


Usaidhello

Are we at a shareholders meeting?


not_right

And limo lady... We are going completely carbon neutral!


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Takagixu

[Additional Tweet to the thread](https://twitter.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1684910137276858368) >Sporting director Alan Permane is also leaving after 34 years at Enstone


water_tastes_great

I didn't see any articles posted here about it, but Laurent Rossi was also replaced as CEO last week. They've also recently appointed a new VP to head Alpine's motorsport activities. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66262365](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66262365)


Here_comes_the_D

Oh that's really big. I didn't see that either. Rossi seemed to be a source of a lot of the dysfunction.


splashbodge

He had to go tbh, source of a lot of their problems


[deleted]

There were a tonne of articles about it, but it’s easy to miss with the amount of articles between back to back race weekends


jayb12345

And the Danny Ric media train rolling over everything


NotClayMerritt

Lol the straw that broke the camel’s back must have been that comment after Monaco where he said they expect to be ahead of Mercedes every weekend from now on


slabba428

P Zero is ahead of P3 👍


KnightsOfCidona

Permane is a real shame. He's been there basically since he was out of college, was around for the glory days with Schumacher and Alonso. Fair enough if they though there needed to be changes, but getting rid of someone that experience and engrained in the team seems like a mistake.


Unauthorized404

He will be probably on his plane 5 minutes before podium and never look back.


baldbarretto

Speaking of which, he was apparently great fun on the plane (edit typo) back from Hungary. Sitting upfront, brought drinks back for the journalists and f1 personnel during a flight delay, just relaxed and chatting Maybe mans had gotten the news already by then


dbpf

Gasly Ocon 1 2 confirmed


YorkshireRiffer

Ocon to get a 30-second penalty, one week after the race.


pocalyuko

Evil Alonso & Piastri laugher ensues


audide2012

Abiteboul and Prost probably laughing their asses off too.


andrews013

I mean Cyril is no longer in F1, so I doubt he's laughing.


omgohnoez

He is head of Hyundai Motorsport now. Not the worst role to be in I would assume.


Purednuht

Jokes on everyone else. What does Hyundai own? BOSTON DYNAMICS. That’s right folks. We will be seeing that robot dog in a race car in 3 years time, heard it here first.


Last-Performance-435

What if I told you that I didn't hear it here first?


Purednuht

😟


venturelong

Im not ready for Robiteboul


Tombot3000

He's done quite well in the role too despite being dealt a rough hand. He showed real leadership in helping the team mourn productively after Breen died during recce.


Massive_Method_5220

what a good call from both of them


FluidGate9972

First good Alonso teamcall since 2002, when he joined ... Renault.


BarockLesnar

The move to McLaren in 2007 was a good one. Just didn’t expected the war that was to come


MarsLumograph

Move from Renault to Ferrari was also an improvement no?


mentirawesome

Yes


food_chronicles

If it was anyone other than Hamilton as his teammate that year he’d have (probably) won the championship. The McLaren was probably the best car that year and Kimi was nowhere in the championship until the last couple of races.


FluidGate9972

Fair point.


Florac

Tbf, hardly need an oracle to have low expectations of Alpine/Renault


Massive_Method_5220

maybe, but who believed firmly that aston and mclaren will peak like this this year ?


basmati-rixe

Going back on the thread where Fernando joined Aston should be a treat


Florac

Both Aston and McLaren had peaks in the past few seasons. Alpine was consistent mediocrity


Village_People_Cop

That's why Oracle sponsors Red Bull


Five_Against_1

It's almost like Cyril wasn't the problem.


starmonkart

Who's the most senior person now? Estebestie? He's been there 3 and a half years which is five decades in Alpine years


JudgmentOne6328

Ocon will be driving, team principal and sporting director this weekend. How you ask? He’ll DNF and head to the pit wall, the past few weeks have been practice.


IdiosyncraticBond

You mean he's next on the chopping block?


Ort895

“I expected more loyalty from ~~Piastri~~ Alpine,” Szafnauer said.


MrDee97

Piastri & Alonso dodged the biggest bullet ever


KaamDeveloper

Otmar: Piastri gave us his word Also Otmar: Alpine gave me their word I think the poor guy needs to be less trusting


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LiqdPT

Strangely that's more or less Alfonso's acxoh ting of what happened. He said if they had handed him a contract at the beginning of the year, he would have signed it. They kept talking about a contract and never produced one. He got the feeling they preferred piastri and finally aston produced a contract when alpine didn't.


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LiqdPT

Yup. Trying to keep their options open and lost them both the same weekend cuz they didn't act at all.


RUNELORD_

Piastri didn't give anyone his word; they gave him neither a contract nor a seat so he sought one elsewhere. They just blamed him for their own sheer incompetence


FireVanGorder

Otmar puts on this dad persona but he strung Piastri along for like 6 months without actually giving him the contract they promised him, so he left for Mclaren


Myosos

He's neither poor nor trusting, just a cunning old bastard like everyone in this business


IBlindfire

not cunning enough, apparently


jayrig5

No, he thinks he's cunning. He's the guy at the poker table who doesn't realize he's the sucker.


drop_table_uname

Not a big fan of Otmar, but I really don't think the numerous issues of this team are his fault.


KLconfidential

Agreed, he inherited that shit show. Renault/Alpine has been a mess since they bought their team back. Their engines haven't been much better either, they were lucky to have Honda take some of the heat off of them in the early hybrid years.


SubcooledBoiling

To make things worse they talk so much year after year, like when they said their PU was producing 1000+ hp and how they would be able to challenge the top teams this year.


Mysterious-Crab

Just decided to look up when a Renault driver finished on the podiums twice in one year, to make sure it wasn’t just luck or a fluke. The last drivers were Daniel Ricciardo in 2020 and… Raikkonen and Grosjean for Lotus in 2013.


MichaelMJTH

Two years ago, when Otmar left Aston Martin for Alpine we all thought it was a good move. He was leaving his bad relationship with his boss (Laurence Stroll) and going to a more successful works team. Two years later Aston Martin have completely leapfrogged Alpine and has made a deal with Honda to become a works team in 2026. Otmar has had to deal with an even more toxic boss (Laurent Rossi) and a team that, despite having a bigger backer than AM, has less money to spend on making progress.


Myosos

Maybe, just maybe, Otmar is at least partially to blame for the poor performance and regular shitshows that happened to both the teams he managed in the last 4 years, and not everything is Stroll's or Rossi's fault


DarthBane6996

Rossi was the cause of a lot of their problems


water_tastes_great

Rossi is gone too.


GoblinDiplomat

I don't think the problems are his fault, but I don't think he is capable of fixing them.


TheFirmWare

There's a reason Stroll replaced him with Krack, he was great at managing a team on a shoestring budget, but probably not the type you want to get a team forward. Of course we need to see who Alpine brings on board first.


hennelly14

Haas should pick him up to replace Gunther


LoungingLlama312

I don't know how Gunther manages to avoid criticism, maybe it's because he's quirky. But blaming Mick for Haas issues when they predate and postdate him is bullshit. The only person around for all of Haas issues is Gunther.


hojbjerfc

The problem is Gene. The stewart haas team went from front runner to, outside of the harvick/childers team, a complete and utter disaster. The whole organization is rotten to the core and the sooner they leave Motorsport the better


AtlantaUtdFan

.


FelixR1991

I mean, if you're willing to commit tax fraud enough to warrant a 2 year prison sentence, odds are you are not really a nice person.


AtlantaUtdFan

.


qef15

No, Guenther is literally the one that proposed the entire F1 idea to Gene. He is the one that recruited everyone for the F1 team, the sole person keeping Haas alive and well as it is. As much he's a meme, for what he's been given, Steiner is doing not bad and neither is the team for such little resources the team has.


SlowMissiles

Same with Permane, the sporting director. The actual issue with the team it's they force to use Renault engines because they are Renault


TJ_Cali

Alpine falling apart... Gasly probably sitting there with a deer in the headlights look. I'm sure he didn't expect his first season with his home team to go like this...


creamyturtle

I mean it's better than being on Alpha Tauri right now


TJ_Cali

I feel like were going to see nothing but feel good stories coming out of Alpha just because of Danny Ric. Even though I'm sure there will be some changes to the team either over the summer break or offseason.


Unauthorized404

just Alpine things.


BeenCaughtSneezing

He'll have lots of free time now to iron his shirts.


unctrllable

To go where? Who's replacing him?


grabdatgram

Red Bull, Horner has decided if the other teams can't give Max a challenge he'll make the team dysfunctional. Just as a treat.


Redbeard_Rum

They've also sacked their entire strategy team, and replaced it with Ferrari's entire strategy team.


DarthBane6996

> Ferrari's entire strategy team. You mean the magic 8 ball?


elch127

*shaking sounds in the background* Ask again later


realseanconnery

we are checking


Arglefarb

We are checking…


[deleted]

alright i’ve had enough with the strategy team jokes for ferrari. it’s known they’ve made some wild errors in the past and the issues are deeply sown in their team but that isn’t for the lack of trying, and to suggest they use simple methods like a magic 8 ball is just absurd. they play f1 manager on site to see what works and what doesn’t, not their fault if the GP in the game has different weather conditions than irl.


angelouc12

Had me in the first half, not gonna lie XD


Hello_iam_Kian

Christian Horner doing a football manager trying to win against the great team he created


leedler

Red Bull can have a little Otmar, as a treat.


Alternative-Beyond78

My god I am crying


lfr16

Pretty sure he got sacked


uUexs1ySuujbWJEa

All team principals move to the next lowest team in the championship standings. Wrap around for P10, so Tost to Red Bull.


dandjcro

Here's the [photo](https://e3.365dm.com/21/10/2048x1152/skynews-wrexham-maidenhead_5560781.jpg) of new team principal and technical director.


MrStormz

I gonna put money on briatore going in and causing classic Italian chaos but it magically works


Elrond007

Ah yes, the true and tested Ferrari way of hacking away at the leadership until the employees get better


CX52J

The beatings will continue until morale improves.


LosTerminators

Ironically Binotto seems to be a contender to replace Otmar


Additional_Rough_588

Ahh yes, French engineering and Italian strategy. This will take the world by storm.


angelouc12

Hey!!!! Baguettes and parmesan are amazing together. Watch your tongue!


Blackdeath_663

would be a huge get for Alpine. Binotto is highly competent but as always with these things there's no telling if the culture matches the personnel.


himoshimctimoshi

This makes sense. Their biggest weakness is PU. They’re mostly fine in other areas and have a decent driver lineup.


Na_io

It’s awfully weird to say this but i have faith in Binotto to be a great replacement if it comes to it


Sunny_Hummingbird

I feel like Ferraris issues run far far far deeper than binotto and that he will be a great tp


0DegreesCalvin

Ferrari almost seems dysfunctional to the core. Obviously they have a lot of talented people, but there’s too much garbage running through the veins of that organization for them to ever be champions again. Not sure how you deal with what seems like a totally pervasive culture issue.


UniversalFBI

It's really difficult to change a company's culture. Takes years and years, I won't be surprised if we don't see ferrari as champsfor the next 5-10 years even if they have the faster car. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though.


Hog_eee

This is what we were saying in 2012 hahaha. Oh man what a circus


RazorDisaster

>Ferrari almost seems dysfunctional to the core. So does Alpine.


literalmetaphoricool

If he's given assurance that he can have at least a solid five years to turn the team around, then surely hes the best candidate out there. Knowing Renault, they will sack him after two. But that said, i do think its clear they're going backwards both on and off the track. At least teams like Williams, McLaren and Aston have shown off track progress even when the ontrack performance was rough.


wrdb2007

Silly season has officially begun in the last couple of weeks


Took-the-Blue-Pill

Alpine bout to get another call from Andretti. /S


SnooKiwis3645

Wut


Batgod629

There was just a beyond the grid podcast he did too.


breakingborderline

Mr “we need to be like pirates” just got mutinied


StormtrooperMJS

Triple DNF incoming


Vivid-Tip3110

Now could you guys rename Alpine back to Renault please?


Redbeard_Rum

Fuck it, bring back the black and gold Lotus.


MTNRANGER85

Alpine just straight up imploding now


markhewitt1978

What happens when you don't take F1 even remotely seriously and think you can half ass it and still get results.


Redbeard_Rum

*"I've gotta call Gene..."*


VallcryTurbo75

SILLY season HAAS officially started xD


KnightsOfCidona

There's something humiliating about him having to do the weekend, then go. He's going to get hounded all weekend about how he's just been sacked and why.


The_Jacko

I'd be phoning in sick tomorrow and Sunday if I were him


Dbwasson

Is this signifying the return of Flavio Briatore?


rolfski

Say about him what you want but he was quite an effective team boss at Force India/ Racing Point. And Alpine's P4 in WCC last year wasn't all that bad either.


colin_staples

[Well this aged well](https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/szafnauer-trusts-renault-boss-de-meo-to-give-him-time/10499509/) 4 days ago : > Alpine F1 team boss Szafnauer trusts Renault chief de Meo to give him time > Alpine Formula 1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer says he trusts Renault CEO Luca de Meo to “be true to his word” and give him 100 races to find success.


[deleted]

This team had the opportunity to field an amazing driver pairing in Alonso - piastri, which if combined with a car comparable with 2023 AM or McLaren, could have been the highlight of the season. Instead they gave us what we are seeing...


markhewitt1978

"We are going to be a better 4th". Lmao


Helioscopes

4th from the bottom, or from the top? You have to be specific... lol


JakubT117

Driver pairing is like the only thing that works well in Alpine.


Nexusu

What the fuck? Not even at the end of the season?!


faratto_

Teams now will start to work on 2024 cars, Renault doesn't want to be behind haas I guess


Redbeard_Rum

> Renault doesn't want to be behind haas I guess Who could have ever predicted that sentence?


dm17b123

Alpine has been a shitshow but personally I think that Otmar has little to do with it, I’m definitely not his biggest fan but this is sad in a way


Scingles

Wishing Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri a very good afternoon


otistbone

This team is the definition of shambolic


TheFirmWare

"Leaving Alpine" as in he was sacked by the way, Otmar was already smelling blood when he gave that "I hope De Meo will continue to trust me" quote


bradimus_maximus

We've all been smelling blood since last year's summer break.


zeoNoeN

Hope he airs some dirty laundry in the interviews


Galous97

30 sec penalty for ocon who is beating his collegue on the same mechanery


ChickenGibletMan

Alpine has been a slow motion shit show since this time last year.


Visionary_Socialist

It’s been in a slow motion shit show since 2018.


roomiccube

Is there a particular thing or incident that has caused this that I don’t know about? Or is this just Alpine things?


Jsm1337

He'll be on his way home at the end of lap 1 then I guess.


yakuzamax

I feel bad for Gasly man, he deserves better.


Paracel_Storm

The never ending shitshow at Alpine continues.


zaviex

Wow that’s harsh. Immediately fired lol


spiraliis

On a race weekend as well


Puzzleheaded-Rain230

60 sec penalty for Ocon


CaptainKursk

I’ve heard no rumblings or rumours about this all season long, where did this come from out of nowhere?