Irate Alpine CEO issues warning to Szafnauer over team’s form

After finishing fourth in the constructors’ championship last year ahead of McLaren, Alpine currently sit sixth overall after the opening five rounds of the season.

Alpine have shown stuttering form in F1 2023, with their inconsistency, rather than a lack of pace, the reason for their mediocre points tally.

The French team bigged up their chances over the winter of closing the gap to the top three teams, which they have done to Ferrari and Mercedes, but it’s still not enough to challenge for the podium.

In a remarkable interview with F1.com, Rossi appeared to threaten Szafnauer and his future with the team.

“He is responsible for the performance of the team, that’s his job,” he added. “There is no hiding here. Otmar was brought in to steer the team, through the season and the next seasons towards the objectives that we have, which is to constantly make progress, as we did in the first two years – fifth and fourth – and to get to the podiums and therefore, this is his mission to turn this team around and bring it to the performance that we want.

“We had a team that performed reasonably well last year, got the fourth position which is the best improvement we had in a long time. It showed a lot of promise. It’s more of less the same people so I don’t accept that we are not capable of maintaining that. 

“Yes, it is Otmar and the rest of his team as Otmar alone doesn’t do everything, but the buck stops with Otmar. It’s Otmar’s responsibility, yes.”

Rossi confirmed that he won’t wait until the end of the year to make changes if needed.

“If they fail by giving 500% best and turning this ship around, there will be extenuating circumstances and it bodes well for the future,” he added. 

“If not, it’s the rule of business, there’s going to be consequences. And I won’t wait until the end of the year. The trajectory is not good. We need to fix the mindset of the team ASAP.”