Alpine Was 'Double-Digit Millions' Below Budget Cap According To Former Team Principal

Friday, 29 December 2023 at 03:00

Former Alpine Formula One team principal Otmar Szafnauer revealed the team has been operating with budget 'double-digit millions' lower than allowed regulations.

The Alpine F1 team has been stuck in the F1 midfield for multiple seasons in a row, and the French team can't seem to get out of that position even with strong drivers like Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

Renault owns Alpine, and the team is essentially the same team that we knew from before 2021, but it was rebranded to promote Renault's sports car brand, Alpine, hence the name.

Even though the French team produces its own engines, which is considered an advantage in Formula One, it has not reached a better result in the Championship than fourth place ever since 2007.

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Alpine hired Otmar Szafnauer in early 2022 to turn the situation around, but he didn't achieve much success throughout his short period with the team.

In mid-2023, the team principal agreed with the team to separate their ways due to different views over the timeline Szafnauer projected to bring the team back to the top.

In a recent interview, Peter Windsor talked about how the budget cap was introduced to make F1 teams profitable and more competitive by keeping the field together and preventing giants from overspending everybody else.

However, the former Alpine team principal revealed such regulations won't work on a team that does not take advantage of the budget cap to its full potential. He revealed to Windsor:

"Yes, but that assumes you’re already at the cap. If you’re not, then there’s headroom to hire. Which we had at Alpine because we were not at the cap. So, when I got there, we were double-digit millions below the cap, so we had headroom to hire."

What Szafnauer suggested is that Renault was reluctant to invest the money into their F1 team, and therefore, the team could not compete with the best.

Alpine interim team principal Bruno Famin recently suggested the team had some other internal problems, but he believes they have solved them and stated the French team is now on its way back to the top.