[Team] Alpine: The cars are Racing Points

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

or they wanted the attention of announcing during a GP weekend?

cynical on my part but with new investors on board, and going by their previous forays into sports ownership and the TV show that goes with it, this all makes for a very provocative first episode?!?

Who knows. But I would think if the audience is the new investors, that seems odd. Lets say they are sour on the current leadership. Making a decision to ditch them. That is easy, but doesn't really "fix" anything.

The important thing that anyone really needs to know is the go forward plan and in this case, it is who will actually be the new leadership. If they had announced new at the same time, that might make more sense. But I think they are just pulling the Band-Aid off to get the pain done and part of that is controlling the message to the wider F1 world vs. a focus sending a message to the new investors. But again, only they know. As always, speculation on my part.

Richard

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

Who knows. But I would think if the audience is the new investors, that seems odd. Lets say they are sour on the current leadership. Making a decision to ditch them. That is easy, but doesn't really "fix" anything.

sorry was a bit vague there...the Ryan Reynolds group, that recently bought into Alpine, did a reality TV show covering their purchase and rebuilding of the Wrexham football club...assuming they will do something similar with their Alpine buy in....so was just making a snide comment about that!

obviously also speculation on my part.

[Peter Mallett]

That is an interesting point though. Of course Wrexham had only one way to go. Alpine carries far wider risks and the Bucks are far higher.

[GTRMagic]

Mr Saward suggests it might only be a matter of time before Mr binotto is announced as joining Alpine

[E.B]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Mr Saward suggests it might only be a matter of time before Mr binotto is announced as joining Alpine

There was rumour back in May that Rossi had offered the position to Binotto but he had said thanks but no thanks. The Saward article was I think written a couple of days ago, before the Szafnauer exit was confirmed, but he does make some valid observations in the article none the less. The fact that a couple of the high ups in Alpine are (as is Binotto) all ex Marchionne proteges was interesting though.

[GreenMachine]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Mr Saward suggests it might only be a matter of time before Mr binotto is announced as joining Alpine

Poisoned chalice much?

It's possible Oscar/Mark may have been wondering about their move in the early part of the season, but any doubts would have been purged by the Macca's form reversal, and now this night of the long knives.

Otmar is no loss, his inability to move on after Oscar's perfectly legit move shows he is unable both to accept mistakes were made, and to accept the new reality and move on - leadership 'fails', and now hopefully someone new can rule a line under that past and get on with managing the future of the team.

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by E.B

Well the break starts Monday! Otmar is still representing the team this weekend. So much for the 100 races to get it right time scale Otmar was given.

Otmar will be replaced on an interim basis by Bruno Famin, who was named earlier this month in the newly created role of VP of Alpine Motorsport.

Permane has been with the team through all its various identities over 34 years when he first joined Benetton! He is leaving 'during the break'

He will be replaced Alpine Academy director Julian Rouse, again on an interim basis.

Chief technical officer Pat Fry is set the leave to join Williams in a similar role by the end of this year. This might have already been known and is perhaps not a part of this latest Alpine shuffle of the pack.

I dont really see this as a positive move for Alpine at all.
The 100 races to get to the top plan is clearly gone from favour.
The recent success of Piastri has managed to create some sourness in senior management abnd its not so long since Cyril was kicked out when he was deemed to have lost Ricciardo,
Putting people out when there is no clear plan of succession seems quite knee jerk, no matter how weak or strong internal relationships were but we're not privy to what has really gone down.
maybe tempers are more frayed than anyone is letting on.
The actual problems over the last two events aren't actually generated by any of the people let go.
Hungary certainly wasn't.
James Vowles has worked with Fry before and indicated in an interview at spa that the decision goes back to conversations in April.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

James Vowles has worked with Fry before and indicated in an interview at spa that the decision goes back to conversations in April.

Is it just me or is it refreshing to see Mr Vowles on Sky telling you what’s happening, what it means, and how the commentators sometimes don’t have it quite right in how easy things are to do…

Back to subject…

Alpine is a French team. Enough said.
Maybe Carlos Ghosn could find a way to run it from Lebanon

[Greem]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Maybe Carlos Ghosn could find a way to run it from Lebanon

Given the way Ghosn made his way to Lebanon he'd be a perfect fit for F1. They have lots of flight cases and superb logistics people

[S griffin]

Blimey, I didn't expect so many to go in quick succession. They are bringing Pat Fry in, let's see who else they have in mind to join the team.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Blimey, I didn't expect so many to go in quick succession. They are bringing Pat Fry in, let's see who else they have in mind to join the team.

What are you on about? He's just left them!

[AndreasDavour]

It really looks like Alpine is dead set on not making it. I have not seen such a meltdown in public in a long time.


It seems like Alonso made a career move in the right direction at the right time, for once.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by AndreasDavour

It seems like Alonso made a career move in the right direction at the right time, for once.

So true!

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Back to subject…Alpine is a French team.

From what has filtered back in the day it seems Mr CG was not a great enthousiast of car racing and certainly not the #1 fan of Viry-Chatillon. Back to Gasly.

[AndreasDavour]

So is this how Andretti gets into F1? Alpine finally realize they will never succeed?

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by AndreasDavour

So is this how Andretti gets into F1? Alpine finally realize they will never succeed?

The team has had plenty of success in earlier guises but agree that success seems unlikely with the current oversight / ownership - don't want to be overly cliched but maybe it's a French "Management" style problem?

Mr Prost has strong views on what senior management at Renault/Alpine is doing to the team - stronger views on Mr Rossi.

The mess that the team made of the Piastri situation, which appeared to involve both Rossi and Szafnauer was a clear indicator to me that there was a fair bit of "headless chicken" style management going on.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

From what has filtered back in the day it seems Mr CG was not a great enthousiast of car racing and certainly not the #1 fan of Viry-Chatillon. Back to Gasly.

I figured he didn’t have a lot to do day to day other than prepare for his multi billion dollar lawsuit against Nissan and co!

Race team management by committee is a WOFTAM..

Here’s hoping BWT see the light.. and wander down to Minardi 2024 and throw their pot in with them…

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Here’s hoping BWT see the light.. and wander down to Minardi 2024 and throw their pot in with them…

Two competing Austrian drinks brands at one team?

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Two competing Austrian drinks brands at one team?

BWT sells water filtration systems don’t they?
The brand is advertised here on a Carrera cup team but I can’t say I have seen their products available

[P38 in workshop]

Originally Posted by Tourer

The team has had plenty of success in earlier guises but agree that success seems unlikely with the current oversight / ownership - don't want to be overly cliched but maybe it's a French "Management" style problem?

Mr Prost has strong views on what senior management at Renault/Alpine is doing to the team - stronger views on Mr Rossi.

The mess that the team made of the Piastri situation, which appeared to involve both Rossi and Szafnauer was a clear indicator to me that there was a fair bit of "headless chicken" style management going on.

To my eyes it looks more like what happens in Maranello from time to time.Odd to do it at a time when the team is clawing it's way closer to the front.Perhaps the suits don't understand the time and effort needed to make a big leap up the grid.

[AndreasDavour]

Originally Posted by Tourer

The team has had plenty of success in earlier guises but agree that success seems unlikely with the current oversight / ownership - don't want to be overly cliched but maybe it's a French "Management" style problem?

Mr Prost has strong views on what senior management at Renault/Alpine is doing to the team - stronger views on Mr Rossi.

The mess that the team made of the Piastri situation, which appeared to involve both Rossi and Szafnauer was a clear indicator to me that there was a fair bit of "headless chicken" style management going on.

Oh, yeah it's all about management. This is a team that micromanage, and meddle from the top in a way that *always* ends in failure. Ferrari is the prime example of how to loose this way, so it's not just a French thing. But, yes it is definitely a management problem. Alain Prost is probably on the money, as he has seen it before. I find his analysis to be 100%/.

[ChrisA]

Just seen a news report that Antony Joshua and Rory McIlroy and others investing in Alpine F1. Whether a good investment, only time will tell.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by ChrisA

Just seen a news report that Antony Joshua and Rory McIlroy and others investing in Alpine F1. Whether a good investment, only time will tell.

I can't be certain, but I think that this comes about due to them being investors in the various investment funds that took a 24% stake in Alpine back in June. I believe that may well have been reported in Pitpass.

[broadrun96]

And multiple NFL players as well. It's more they bought in to investment funds that have bought in to something else than them directly investing in an F1 team

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

I can't be certain, but I think that this comes about due to them being investors in the various investment funds that took a 24% stake in Alpine back in June. I believe that may well have been reported in Pitpass.

Saw it on Google news this morning. Didn't realise it was old news. Hey hey