WILL ALPINE’S CONFUSION UNDERMINE ALONSO?
At the time of writing, the Alpine Formula 1 team boss role is vacant. Cyril Abiteboul has left Renault and title-winning MotoGP convert Davide Brivio has been appointed Alpine’s racing director, a position that hasn’t existed in that team since 2016 when
Fred Vasseur left.
When Vasseur was racing director he was at war with Abiteboul over who actually was in charge of the team. Now the position exists again there is fresh confusion over who calls the shots.
It’s pretty clear that Alpine, at least initially, didn’t know what to do about its leadership structure following Abiteboul’s surprise exit. It is understood to have come unexpectedly at the race team and at corporate level.
Abiteboul never could resist sticking his head above the parapet, often setting incredibly lofty goals and repeatedly under-delivering. It may be that senior people at Alpine, maybe even
Alonso himself, believe the team is better off without him and will benefit from the appointment of executive director Marcin Budkowski as team principal.
But Abiteboul did oversee a gradual rise of Renault from a very low base, spent years in charge of a works team, and crucially did the deal to get Alonso back. His expected Alpine CEO role has now gone to Laurent Rossi, a corporate plug-in. There may well be consequences felt from that, short-term and longer-term.
This kind of internal disruption has the potential to leave a person like
Alonso displeased – and shortchanged. He is a driver and a man who likes to leave nothing to chance and needs to trust those around him to make the best decisions on matters outside of his control.
This is not the sign of a complete and wellconsidered reshuffle. Worse still, it has a very real chance of disrupting the momentum Alonso should have benefited from in 2021 – and may undermine his long-term ambitions as well.