Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi says he is not planning any further top-level management changes following the news of two new arrivals for 2022. Alpine announced earlier on Thursday that Otmar Szafnauer will be joining as Team Principal, while Bruno Famin is soon to arrive from the FIA as Executive Director of the operation's Viry-Chatillon engine facility. RacingNews365.com understands that as he was not exposed to sensitive team data, Famin has no gardening leave and is due to start at Alpine in early March, with Szafnauer also set to join before the F1 season opener in Bahrain, though talks are ongoing with Aston Martin. These arrivals come after Marcin Budkowski left his role as Executive Director and four-time World Champion Alain Prost departed as Non-Executive Director, which preceded a separate technical reshuffle .
Szafnauer will take his time to analyse Alpine
In an exclusive interview with RacingNews365.com , Rossi addressed the sweeping changes across Alpine, and expressed confidence that the outfit can implement some stability under Szafnauer and Famin. "I guess this is kind of like closing all of the pending questions people might have," Rossi commented. "You might have changes over time, but as far as top management is concerned, I think it's mostly it. "It's going to be below those people that we might reinforce or strengthen the team here and there – nothing but that, I guess. "Obviously Otmar will have his own appraisal of the situation. He will take his time, as he told me, to analyse the team, just like I did last year. "If he makes changes, it's going to be further down the road, just to see if he can bring in a couple of reinforcements."
Rossi's time freed up for matters outside F1
Rossi added that part of the "goal" with the latest set of internal changes is to give him enough time to think about other aspects of the Alpine organisation, namely the road car business. "Last year I was very much involved [in F1] for two reasons; one, I needed to understand, assess and analyse; and the other one is because, honestly, I'd stepped in to compensate for some shortcomings," he continued. "Now I'm going to go back to what should be more of a CEO role, a bit less in the action. I'm still going to be there, you're going to still see me at the Grands Prix, [but] perhaps not all of them, perhaps not from Thursday night to Sunday night. "I couldn't really continue doing [what I was doing], so it would have been done at the expense of the rest." Rossi added that the "timing is good" for Alpine, with new road cars set to be released in 2024, '25 and '26, including a 400bhp electric SUV. "We have time now to develop those cars, build them and expand the dealership network," he said. "Now that F1 is taken care of, I can focus on that – so I'm rebalancing things."
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