Otmar Szafnauer says he was going to show Alpine right into a prime three group earlier than his dismissal as group principal, and that the group’s present scenario is a “catastrophe.”
Alpine introduced the departures of Szafnauer and long-time sporting director Alan Permane through the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix weekend, with Szafnauer leaving after just below 18 months on the group. Chatting with the Excessive Efficiency podcast, he says he had been conscious of the challenges he would face as soon as he arrived and located the complete group didn’t report back to him, however that he’d remained dedicated as he thought he may flip the scenario round.
“I couldn’t have predicted the long run,” Szafnauer mentioned. “I had a contract, I needed to do the perfect I can for my group, I’m nonetheless working laborious, I’m nonetheless delivering relative to immediately. Yeah, we have been sixth in that championship, however we had a few podiums, we have been scoring factors recurrently, it wasn’t a catastrophe – we have been within the midfield.
“It’s not like immediately. I don’t know the place they’re immediately, ninth or one thing within the championship? Right this moment it’s a catastrophe. It’s a half step again, however generally you are taking a half step again to take two steps ahead. The recruitment was occurring, good individuals have been coming, I used to be going to show that group right into a top-three group which is what we needed to do.
“I used to be working with the FIA on the time to work with the facility unit equalization. We have been 25 horsepower down on energy when the engine freeze occurred, [and] there’s a gentleman’s settlement amongst the engine producers that mentioned if any person is means down on energy we’ll permit them to come back again up.
“My final assembly, which was a Method 1 Fee assembly in Belgium … I put a robust case ahead for permitting Alpine powertrain to come back again as much as equal the others. The opposite three have been inside a kilowatt of one another. We’re 15 kilowatts down, 25 horsepower down, it’s laborious to compete. So I used to be engaged on all these fronts to get Alpine higher, and I did it to my final day.”
Szafnauer – who claims he was additionally made a scapegoat within the Oscar Piastri contract saga for errors made earlier than his arrival – says his exit coincided with that of various key Alpine personnel that has contributed to the decline in efficiency.
“[I had] Method 1 Fee assembly within the morning, and I feel the announcement occurred on the lunchtime that weekend that each Alan Permane and I have been leaving.
“I knew a few week earlier than … simply in a cellphone name from head of HR, a Zoom name. The top of Renault Group HR.
“I’ve by no means explored these causes. There have been strategies that I wanted to alter the company tradition in a means that I didn’t suppose was the best technique to do it. I understand how to alter company tradition right into a tradition that has a profitable mentality, psychological security, every little thing that I’ve talked about that I used to be on my technique to doing.
“They needed a company tradition change in a unique method, to do away with some those that have been doing an excellent job that had been there for a very long time, and my thought was in the event you do away with those that do an excellent job then the message you ship is, ‘Do an excellent job, get fired,’ and that’s not the tradition that you simply really need.
“I used to be requested [to change], and I mentioned no. It’s not who I’m … That will have been short-term. These those that have left truly did an excellent job. Most of them are at different groups now, and simply have a look at the outcomes — you may see the distinction … It’s not as a result of I left. There was a mass of those that left.”
