That 2021 is so far away Alpine This is one of the most positive faces of a season in the history of Formula 1. The French are in the spotlight thanks to the return of Fernando Alonso in the Gran Circo and they managed to get the Asturian to the podium seven years later with the now forgotten ‘El Plan’. Your third place in Losail, added to the success of Or with in Hungary, gave way to expectations that were never met. And as often happens in sports, the higher you aim, the harder the fall. The blow at the beginning of 2024 was of enormous proportions.
A very unreliable 2022
The year has started in a strange way. After finishing fifth in 2021, the goal is to be the best in the central zone and for this stability is needed. And they don’t have it anytime soon. On January 13 of that year, the executive director, Marcin Budkowskileave the position that coincides with a sports institution Alain Prost He was also forced to leave the team. In his place he entered Otmar Szafnauer from Racing Point and Bruno Famin as CEO.
Reliability was the great test of that season but it didn’t stop them from achieving their goal and being the fourth best car on the grid. But the price was very expensive: they did not achieve any podium all year and the lack of consistency and courage to give Alonso more years ended up forcing the Asturian’s departure and a subsequent circus .
Alonso’s goodbye and Piastri’s mockery
The announcement of Alonso’s farewell was in August 2022. ‘El Plan’ turned into a huge disappointment from being a movement of fans full of optimism. The Asturian then decided to pack his bags due to a lack of results and an attractive offer from the French. It’s going to Aston Martin and what seemed like a mistake turned out to be one of his great successes, leaving the decision of the Enstone bosses in a very bad place.
But far from leaving Alonso alone, the worst was the circus that followed. Alpine, a few hours after Fernando’s announcement, announced that they were signing Oscar Piastri, a young promise who became part of its young pilots academy and wowed the world in the lower category. “2023 driver line-up confirmed: Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri. After four years as part of the Renault and Alpine family, reserve driver Oscar Piastri has been promoted to a race seat alongside Esteban Ocon from 2023,” confirms the equipment.
Nothing could be further from reality. Piasti’s contract states that the driver can negotiate with any team if they do not confirm him as the starting driver before August. So it is. While Alpine hesitated, the Australian negotiated with McLaren to debut with them. “I understand that, without my consent, Alpine F1 issued a press release this afternoon that I will be driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not drive for Alpine next year,” Piastri explained on his social networks that day.
After a month of complete silence on their social networks, those from Enstone tried to fix the disaster by going to trial against those from Woking but they did not avoid ridicule. They finally signed Gasly as their final choice in a decision against the clock on October 7.
Festival of changes in the dome
With all this chaos, the 2023 season started with a lot of doubts and did not end well. The Ocon-Gasly pairing was not productive enough and McLaren and Aston Martin got ahead of the French, moving them to sixth position. The only positive thing was two podiums (one from Esteban in Monaco and another from Pierre in Zandvoort).
But heads also rolled in the offices. In July, a group of investors acquired 24% of the team’s shares in exchange for 200 million euros. In the same month the dismissal of Otmar Szafnauer at the helm of the team after just 18 months in office. The restructuring was also carried out by sporting director Alan Permane and technical director Pat Fry. Great team managers are gone.
A start to 2024 to forget
The start of this current season can be defined as a disaster. The French have no speed in qualifying or in the race. They do not add a point to the two races and in Bahrain they are the last two. In Saudi Arabia things are no better. In fact, Gasly couldn’t even start due to gearbox failure which consecrated the disaster.
And if that wasn’t enough, after the first classification in Sakhir it became known that there was another remodeling in the team. Matt Harman technical director, and Dirk de Beerwas out of the team just weeks after presenting their car for the campaign.
Things need to change dramatically at Alpine so that this year isn’t just another episode in a seemingly endless free fall.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
