Otmar Szafnauer has opened up about his experiences of working with Fernando Alonso since joining Alpine. The Team Principal took up his role with the team in February following his departure from Aston Martin. This has brought with it plenty of new experiences, and amongst these has been the opportunity to work alongside Alonso, which Szafnauer has never previously done. So far, Szafnauer has enjoyed being colleagues with the Spaniard, and feels that they take a similar approach to their roles. When asked on the F1 Nation podcast whether Alonso is easy to work with, Szafnauer responded: "Yeah. He sees life just like I see life. "It's all about performance: leave no stone unturned, you've got to do everything you can to get the next bit of performance on the car and do a good job on track." Szafnauer does see some variations between himself and Alonso, though. "I think his motivation and techniques are maybe a little bit different than mine," the team boss said. "But he's got less people to motivate than I do and, yeah, he's brilliant."
Szafnauer "still assessing" life at Alpine
It is still early days for Szafnauer in his role at Alpine, and the Romanian-American admits that he is still getting used to his new environment. However, he so far feels positive about the work that is going on within the team. "I'm still assessing, and I've only been there for a month," Szafnauer explained. "But the car's very competitive – nothing to do with me! The people who develop the car over the winter and those back at the factory, continually making parts to supply for spares as well as the upgrades, they're a good bunch of people. "They've been racing for a long time, [they have] great experience. The race engineers are experienced. We have two good drivers, so the ingredients are all there. "It's just unfortunate that we've had a bit of bad luck in the first three races, but the performance is there. The harder we work, the luck will come and so will the points, so I'm happy."
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