Alpine delivered damning F1 assessment by ousted boss Szafnauer

Former Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer has delivered a damning assessment of the management of the team.

Szafnauer was unceremoniously removed from his position at the Belgian Grand Prix last season and replaced in an interim role by Bruno Famin, who has since become a permanent appointment.

But the French manufacturer has taken a major step backwards with the new A524 car, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly fearing the worst ahead of the opening weekend of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

'It bites you'

Alpine's nightmares came true in qualifying as it locked out the final row of the grid and speaking ahead of the session, Szafnauer told Viaplay NL: "The stopwatch doesn't lie and it didn't look very competitive.

"I do understand that. There's a part of me that... it's justified that making not-so-good decisions at senior levels, removing people and not creating psychological safety in a team, that's a result that happens thereafter.

"But I get it, it's a hard game, Formula 1. You have to do a lot of things right and if you get some of them wrong, it bites you."