Szafnauer’s anger: “Both drivers have let the team down&”;
The sprint race at the Brazilian Grand Prix was a great opportunity to score big points for Alpine. The result was far from satisfactory. Following two collisions on the first lap, the French team's drivers suffered serious damage to their single-seaters and sank in the standings.
Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso started respectively from 6th and 7th place on the starting grid this Saturday. The two Alpine drivers then had a considerable advantage over McLaren, which only had one car in the top 10. Unfortunately, the hopes of the French team will be quickly erased.
Fernando Alonso will violently collide with his teammate’s right sidepod before breaking his front wing while trying to overtake the latter at the end of the first lap. These incidents allowed McLaren to secure two additional points with Lando Norris’ 7th place in this sprint race.
The boss of the Alpine team, Otmar Szafnauer, spoke out about these race incidents. The behavior of both drivers is considered simply unacceptable, as the team must remain the number one priority.
« The two drivers dropped the team today » he declares to the media NOS.
According to him, his drivers must focus on the 4th position currently occupied by the team in the constructors’ championship and avoid any incidents on the track at all costs. The fight is very close with McLaren, who is only 5 points behind Alpine.
We are in a very tight battle for fourth place in the World Constructors’ Championship. Over a thousand employees from our team are working very hard for this. Esteban and Fernando must therefore do better than that and avoid incidents on the track.
The French team will have to optimize their strategy if they want to defend their 4th place this weekend. The two cars of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso will start from the 17th and 18th positions this Sunday.
