Alpine Racing’s new structure encompasses all areas of the sports division, but when it comes to Formula 1 there is a leader who will be in charge of sustaining the entire project: Otmar Szafnauer.
Recently, Alpine communicated the latest changes related to its new management structure, which incorporated Otmar Szafnauer and Bruno Famin as heavyweights of the sports division of the Renault Group sub-brand.
laurent rossiCEO of Alpine Cars, has entrusted these two men with the future of the brand in competition but, unlike what happened in 2021, the roles of the Formula 1 team will be very clear and, above all, staggered.
Famin, boss of Alpine Racing
Alpine reported at the time that Bruno Famin, with a lot of experience in competition through Peugeot and the FIA, would be in charge of Alpine Racing. However, this does not mean that the Frenchman will have influence over the Formula 1 team.
“Not exactly,” said Laurent Rossi when asked if Szafnauer would direct Enstone and Famin Viry-Chatillon. “In terms of administrative organization, yes. Otmar will be employed by Alpine UK, Bruno by Alpine Francewhich is basically Enstone and Viry, respectively.”
«The boss of everything is going to be Otmar and he is going to work together with Pat Fry, Matt Harmon and Renault»
And it is that the total control over the Formula 1 project will be in charge of Otmar Szafnauer. And that includes the team’s operations at the Viry-Chatillon headquarters. “Otmar will lead F1 operations at Enstone, Viry and the circuits. Therefore, even though he does not have a direct hierarchical link with the people of Viry, the project will be managed by Enstone.
“So the idea is that we are going to consider all the divisions: vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, but also the PU (power unit; engine and hybrid system) as a chassis subsystem or the car itself, ”Explains Rossi.
“Responsibility for the system will go to Matt Harmon (technical director). He will drive the car project and all the other subsystems will fit. And the PU will do the same », he reiterates. “But at the end of the day, the boss of everything will be Otmar and he will work together with Pat Fry (CTO), Matt Harmon and also Renault to carry out the project.
A completely new engine
Last December, the already fired Marcin Budkowski claimed that Renault and Alpine had been racing with the same engine for the last three years.
Therefore, looking ahead to 2022, Renault It has completely renewed the engine and has even opted for performance as the main objective, leaving reliability in the background.
Matt Harman, Technical Director of Alpine F1, points out that the first thing that began to develop for the new car was “the power unit, mainly because it establishes some of the key aerodynamic areas of the car. We decided to change the architecture, including the internal combustion engine (ICE), the ERS (Energy Recovery System), the turbo and its positioning in the car.”
“That has given us some real gains in terms of our ability to express ourselves aerodynamically and get the best lap time out of the car,” says Harman. “We have reviewed the RE22 from back to front. We have looked at all aspects of it in terms of its integration into the chassis, its base performance and the combination of the two.”
“We have analyzed the ERS system and its attributes. We have analyzed ICE and the structures that support it. We have also analyzed the MGU-K and the MGU-Hmaking some pretty big changes to complement the A522 architecture.”
Photos: Alpine F1 Team