For Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo, the gamble of changing the team from Renault to Alpine worked out well last season. Alpine had two podium finishes, and continued improvement is the plan.
PARIS, France—Most F1 launches have been very short in the past few weeks, sometimes with teams moving to the nearest test track to become familiar with their new machines. However, on Monday evening in the City of Lights, the BWT Alpine F1 Team launched their new A 522, not with just one livery, but two.
For the second season in a row, the team came in fifth last year in the Constructor’s Championship, And with the new technical regulations and a brand-new test driver, the team is getting a goal of continuous improvement over the next 100 races.
Luca de Meo: I think the team did a great job, but … we knew it would be a long journey, a marathon to the top. But every year we will progress, and we will see what will happen in 2022.
Laurent Rossi, the CEO of BWT Alpine, concurred. ‘It was the first year for the team as a business unit. The goal was to set the foundations for this year, and we did just that. We learned what worked well and what did not, and we needed to consolidate what we needed to do and what to reinforce and learn how to win again.”
One thing Rossi did was to change the management structure. Without Marcin Budkowski and Alain Prost, and transferring David Brivio to another spot in the team, Rossi realized he had made an error. So he brought in Otmar Snafnauer, a former Team Principal, who was released last month from Aston Martin. Rumors began flying that Snafnauer would be the new Team Principal, tasked to lead things in more of an orderly way.
“I look forward to joining them and helping them just not beat just the Aston Martin’s of this world, but everybody else on track,” Snafnauer said. “I will bring my style of collaborative leadership. I heard Luca (de Meo) mention the glue that keeps us all together, and I feel that the glue that keeps us all together will keep us from breaking that glue.”
The drivers will remain the same as last year as Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon return. “2021 was a good season for us,” said Alonso. “We won a race, and we were back on the podium, and it was an amazing season for Alpine. The team is now stronger, and I think that the team is ready for the challenge.”
For Ocon, the past season comes with a win and a hope to improve more with the new car.
Estaban Ocon: It was nice to have results, like my win in Hungary and Fernando’s podium in Qatar. We have to push and keep progressing, and have more of those results on a more frequent basis.
Australian Oscar Piastri, the recent Formula Two champion, joins them as a test and development driver, and Piastri fits into the plan, too. “If one of these two cannot drive, for whatever reason, then it is my responsibility to step in,” he explained. “My responsibility is to find out what can make the car faster and work on that at the factory. My job is to make the team go forward.”
And that is what BWT Alpine must do in their new blue and pink livery and the full pink one with a little blue, which will be showcased in the first two races of this upcoming season.
