“Not shameful to celebrate wins,” Otmar Szafnauer fires back at Fernando Alonso for his latest dig at Alpine
Otmar Szafnauer defends his team from Fernando Alonso's spicy comments.
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Otmar Szfnauer & Fernando Alonso. Images via Twitter
Fernando Alonso made a dramatic exit from Alpine last summer. The French were taken aback by his announcement. The Spaniard also announced his multi-year contract with Aston Martin, who eagerly welcomed him with arms wide open. Alonso left Alpine but could not stop firing shots at his former team.
During the Aston Martin AMR23 launch, the two-time world champion took a dig at Alpine. He called them out for being complacent though they managed to finish fourth in constructors beating the other midfield teams last season. It was his third stint with the French team.
During the Aston Martin launch, Alonso admitted that his time with Alpine was very different compared to the other teams. “They finished fourth, and they were happy with fourth. They finished fifth, and they were happy with fifth. If we were seventh, it was a celebration.” The Spaniard mentioned the team was in a “comfortable position.” On the other hand, speaking about Aston Martin, he said, “Here there are no celebrations until we win and this is very appealing.”
The Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer responded to Alonso’s jab during the AF23 launch. “I think when we did finish fourth if you look back, he was as happy as everybody else who was part of the team,” Szafnauer explained to the media and PlanetF1.com, “When the year before you’re fifth and your ambition is to move up to fourth, it’s not easy to do. We had to beat McLaren. They have a massive trophy cabinet” He stated that they were not easy to beat.
Otmar Szafnauer is not ashamed to celebrate Alpine’s small wins
Szafnauer thinks it is important to celebrate successes. “When you say, ‘look, I want to be top four, I want to be fourth, not fifth. I don’t think it’s shameful to say, ‘we’ve done it and let’s celebrate. For us, next year, if we can get much closer to third than we were this year, I’ll celebrate that too. If we’re closer and the gap isn’t that big, that means we’re making progress to where we want to go.”
Though Alpine impressively landed fourth in the constructor’s championship in 2022, Alonso was unhappy. However, if Aston Martin were to end up in that position in 2023, they would call for a celebration. The team was seventh in the constructors last season, but they are bound to make progress with their $200 million investment in a new factory at their Silverstone base, which will be operational by 2024.
Aston Martin has also hired a bunch of talents and is hell-bent on moving forward. Alpine, on the other hand, is no joke, in 2022, they focused on saving the car’s weight and had to compromise on reliability. The team, however, is certain they will fix all the issues for the 2023 season. Thanks to Alonso, there is now a battle between the two teams, soon, we will know who is better, Alpine or Aston Martin.
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