Otmar Szafnauer slams Renault’s senior management for “wanting success instantly” amidst tough start to the season
Ex-F1 team boss Otmar Szafnauer has bashed his previous employers for their lack of understanding in recent times.
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Otmar Szafnauer (Via Twitter)
Otmar Szafnauer is currently out of a job as of now. Following last month’s Belgian Grand Prix, he was no longer a part of the Alpine F1 team. Ahead of the race weekend before the summer break, it was announced that he had been sacked along with many others. Otmar had joined the team a while back having left Aston Martin thinking it was a sinking ship.
However, Aston Martin made a comeback in 2023 with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll at the helm. Otmar wasn’t the only person that was sacked from the team. Long-serving Sporting Director Alan Permane was also fired from the team. Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry was also announced as the next person who is leaving during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Otmar Szafnauer has gone on to bash Renault for this decision. Here is what he had to say in an interview. “I think the senior management at Renault, CEO Luca de Meo, as everyone does in F1, wants success instantly and unfortunately, that’s not how it works in F1,” Szafnauer said. “They wanted to do it faster than is possible and I couldn’t agree to an unrealistic timeline because if you do that, it’s only a matter of time and everyone gets frustrated, so I laid out a very realistic and possible plan and I think they wanted to shortcut that plan with somebody else,” he continued.
Otmar Szafnauer reveals the underlying issues at Alpine
Otmar had joined the team about 18 months ago. Ever since then, he noticed that the staff that was attracted from rival teams generally were on long term contracts. This meant the gardening leave was humongous leading to long lead times. Szafnauer stated that the team’s lack of understanding led to these issues. Apart from that, most of the heads reported to someone above Otmar Szafnauer in the food chain at Alpine.
With this going on, Otmar Szafnauer’s exit seems like a blessing in disguise. Meanwhile, it’s been a tough situation for drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly who have been facing issues with the car’s reliability and consistency throughout the first half of the season. With the summer break ending this month, F1 will race again at the Dutch GP. It will be interesting to see what the French team can do there.
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Varad Joshi
(940 Articles Published)