The famous plan of Fernando Alonso and Alpine is leaking. Or at least that’s what many fans and the press think. But from the team they insist on having a different approach and Otmar Szafnauer has been in charge of explaining it on this occasion.
The plan. The happy plan. that what Fernando Alonso began to become popular last year and Alpine joined, even reflecting it on the rear wing of their cars at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
But the truth is that the plan that Renault had and that it has inherited Alpine does not advance At least as far as results are concerned. We already indicated it recently when we echoed Laurent Rossi’s discomfort with the current situation of the team: the position in the constructors’ championship is the same since 2019, there has been no progress.
“Even if you have the money sometimes it doesn’t matter, it takes time, time”
On the other hand, from the Anglo-French team they insist that The Alpine Plan is 100 races. That is, as if the team had started from scratch in 2021 and given itself five years to storm the title. The same thing that Cyril Abiteboul said in 2016, when the diamond brand decided to return to Formula 1 as an official team.
«The Plan is to win, but that takes time, even if you have the money. Fighting for titles is not something easy to achieve. Why do we compete? Of course to win. But you also have to understand that nine other teams want to do the same and it’s very, very difficult,” says Otmar Szafnauer.
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The director of Alpine, a newcomer this year to the team, asks: “Who wins now? Only two or three have a chance, especially Red Bull and Ferrari. So it is difficult, but not impossible to overtake them. We have to speed up and learn to be faster.”
“And that’s the plan, but it takes time, because sometimes you even need tools that don’t exist and you have to make them yourself, you need the right people or the right infrastructure. And even if you have the money sometimes it doesn’t matter, it takes time, time. And that is why we talk about the 100 races”, reiterates the Romanian engineer.
Alpine has what it takes to win
This is something we have already heard many times in the last 12 months. The bad thing is that it is a very repeated speech in Formula 1 because all the teams think they have the necessary talent to win, but they only need more money, more time or both to prove it.
“This team is champion, its engine has been champion many times and under the skin of the car there is DNA from Enstone and Viry, where there are authentic racers, great facilities, a high level of tools. And above all people who know, who have already won and know how to do it, some have even been working there for 40 years, “defends Szafnauer.
“That culture is important and We need the spark that, for example, Fernando Alonso has to win, because if he doesn’t win, it hurts a lot and he feels it.”affirms regarding the Spanish pilot who, by the way, they still do not know if they will renew for 2023.
Szafnauer speaks a little more precisely about Fernando Alonso, who insists that “speed matters, not age. Fernando is very intelligent. really smart. He knows the limitations of our car and the team, which are his limitations. He knows it and he doesn’t come and he tells you: “We have to win”. What he does say is that we have to give the best of what the car has ».
“And, number two: he always pushes for us to make changes to the car before the rest of the teams to take steps forward. It’s why Alonso pushes, and it’s normal. And I push for exactly the same thing.
the evolutions
Another thorny issue, at least in 2022. And it is that even Laurent Rossi himself has admitted in the aforementioned words that Alpine has been losing ground as the season progressed.
Szafnauer, for his part, defends the development strategy for this year’s Alpine A522. «It depends on the strategy of the teams and the budget ceiling. One strategy is to understand the car and put it all together in an evolution, which is cheaper than putting an evolution here and another there. We design, we test, and if there is a profit, we bring the part, we do not accumulate”.
So what is the real goal for this season? «Last year, Esteban won a race and Fernando got on the podium, seven years after the previous one. But It must be taken into account that under normal conditions it is possible that none of these results would have occurredwithout taking away any merit from anyone, because they took advantage of their opportunities without making a single mistake ».
“First we should try to repeat it and then improve it. This year we will fight for podiums», concludes Szafnauer. It’s hard to believe.
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Photos: Alpine F1 Team