Otmar Szafnauer: “Let’s see what we can do to move forward.”
For now, far from the desired fourth place in the constructors' championship, Alpine and Otmar Szafnauer do not want to give up.
« We want to be at least 4th among the constructors. But in the long term, we want to catch up with the top teams and become one of them. » This is what Luca de Meo, the big boss of Renault, and Laurent Rossi, former CEO of Alpine, had announced during the presentation of their 2023 race car. However, after ten Grand Prix races, the French team is only in sixth place, behind Aston Martin and McLaren.
If the team managed to place both of its drivers in the top 10 on four occasions this season (Saudi Arabia, Miami, Monaco, Barcelona), the double retirements in Australia and Silverstone have been painful.
Otmar Szafnauer, director of Alpine, is well aware that the task ahead is proving to be more challenging than anticipated, but he chooses to remain optimistic.
Other developments to come
« It is without a doubt a bigger challenge than at the beginning of the year, when we all had zero points. But we continue to improve the car as planned, we continue with our team improvement plans, and we are implementing the tools we need. And our goal now is to make sure that even if we don’t finish in fourth place at the end, due to the disparity in points, we can be the fourth fastest team, he expressed in a press conference.
« Everyone in Enstone and Viry is making efforts and bringing improvements, as well as the drivers, one of whom has been with us for a while, but the other has now become accustomed to the team. So, let’s see what we can do to move forward. »
Alpine is bringing a new front wing this weekend, which already seems to be working well as Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon respectively set the 3rd and 5th fastest times in free practice 2. A new floor is also set to debut in Spa next week.
