Sacked Alpine boss reveals plans of new US F1 entry and it is not Andretti
Otmar Szafnauer was sacked by Alpine midway through the 2023 season.
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Otmar Szafnauer and Michael Andretti (via IMAGO)
Alpine has continued to receive major additions and subtractions from the team mid-way through a season in F1. Currently, Bruno Famin has deemed his exit from the French constructor mid-way much like Otmar Szafnauer. Hence, Szafnauer’s exit saw some other key-level changes to the constructor. Amidst the ongoing circus, the 59-year-old has highlighted his plans with a new US F1 team entry.
The addition of the 11th team on the grid has continued to receive multiple negative reactions. Regardless, Otmar Szafnauer has his hopes pegged on a re-entry to Formula 1 with a new US constructor. Szafnauer revealed that he was working with some organizations in North America that had the funding to join the grid as the 11th team. However, the 59-year-old reassured that it wasn’t Andretti that he was joining with.
I've been working with some organisations in North America that have the funding to start an 11th team. It's not Andretti.Otmar Szafnauer said on the James Allen on F1 podcast (H&T: autosport.com)
Hence, the team continued to have hopes of joining the grid despite the recent Andretti rejection. Szafnauer revealed that the team was starting to put the building blocks in place and make sure everything was in place. As a result, the entire ordeal was ‘interesting’ for the sacked Alpine boss.
Now we're just putting some of those building blocks in place to make sure that we have everything that's required in order to be successful to both start a team, but also get an entry. So, you know, that's interesting too.Otmar Szafnauer added
Otmar Szafnaeur claimed he was a ‘competitor’ and wanted a role to ‘influence’ the team
Otmar Szafnauer had attempted his best to take Alpine to great heights in terms of performance which he wasn’t much successful in. However, returning to the F1 grid with a leadership role on the 11th team would be exciting for the 59-year-old. Hence, Szafnauer revealed the reasons behind such an objective.
Szafnauer claimed that he was a ‘competitor’ and wanted a role of influencing a team’s competition in F1 which was the reason behind him being interested in the 11th team.
I'm a competitor and the one thing that I like more than anything is the competition, So, to come back in a role where I can't influence how well the team is competing, I don't think I'd be interested.Otmar Szafnauer noted
F1 was strictly against the addition of an 11th team on the grid previously. Hence, the new team should put forth highly promising prospects to be considered to join the grid. Time will tell about how the entire situation fares out for the sacked Alpine principal.
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Aditya Pandya
(1440 Articles Published)