“It could be much worse,” Otmar Szafnauer surprised by the impressive start to Alpine’s season


“It could be much worse,” Otmar Szafnauer surprised by the impressive start to Alpine’s season

Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer

Alpine has started their 2022 campaign much better than it was expected, considering their troublesome rounds of pre-season testing. The team stands fourth in the constructors’ championship after the first two races, despite a DNF of Fernando Alonso in Saudi Arabia caused by a power failure.

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The team’s boss, Otmar Szaafnauer, who joined the team this season, believes that three cars failing to finish the opening race wasn’t a surprise. He explained his stand to Speedweek.com, saying, “First of all, we have to remember – these are completely new racing cars. There were almost no parts that we took over from 2021, parts that had proven their stability.” 

In the opening race in Bahrain, we saw the Honda-powered cars of Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, and Pierre Gasly DNF due to PU issues. Whereas, in Saudi Arabia, only 13 drivers out of the possible 19 finished the race.

Otmar Szafnauer’s view of reliability issues

Alpine's Otmar Szafnauer with Fernando Alonso
Otmar Szafnauer with Fernando Alonso

Alpine’s boss considers another factor to be crucial other than the terminated usage of 2021 parts. Otmar believes frozen engine development to be another reason behind the problem. 

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He said, “Engine manufacturers knew – the development will be frozen. So the engine specialists tried to implement as many improvements as possible before the drive units are homologated by the world autosport association FIA. When I look at all of this, it could be a lot worse in terms of durability. I was amazed at how few problems there were, especially in Bahrain. This underlines the great work that has been done in the ten teams.”

“A lot of fans still remember the times when we came to the first race, and with a bang six or eight cars saw the checkered flag. Today we have a completely different level of stability,” he concluded.

The teams, as Otmar said, have got good work done, it’s just a matter of who has understood the regulations better. With the Australian GP coming up this weekend, we hope to see lesser of engine failures and maximum racing.

ALSO READ: “It was the best way to represent the whole team there,” Mattia Binotto explains his decision of joining podium celebrations in Bahrain

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