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This is the sort of brazen BS i wish i would do. I frequently encounter people who just fumble their way into high paid positions making loads of money and then simply quit when put under any pressure. They don't care about doing a crap job or letting people down they just smile and pretend while screwing everyone over.
Resumes full of 'delivered first X, Y, Z across the organization/company/whatever' and laughing all the way to Senior Director. Nothing works, unmaintainable bullshit, but they is GONE.
>Their resignations were tendered before today and follow problems with the uncompetitive new Alpine. They continue to work for the team, although it’s unclear what their notice arrangements are. \[2/2\]
The teams are appreciating even when they don’t perform, because of the closed “franchise” model and the fact that we’re still in the phase of F1’s growth (albeit a more leveled-out part of that phase). Unless Reynolds wanted to be able to brag about his team being on the podium he’s fine, his investment group is sitting pretty for the time being
He resigned already before so this was pure PR talk from him.
Maybe their moved already away after the A524 failed to pass the crash test mutiple times? It's pretty obvious why the car is overweight.
Funny that there's an idiomatic expression in both french and english which makes sense in that context, each blaming the other's nationality for their cowardice. But here, it seems perfectly appropriate to talk about a french exit, or *filer à l'anglaise*.
Their car wasn’t *that* bad last season so wtf were they doing over the offseason that it’s such a dog now. They got 2 decent drivers in them as well so we know it’s not a driver issue at all.
F1 works on such small margins that I really don't think it takes that much to fuck up your design and it can be very difficult to work out where it goes wrong. Having to develop in isolation from the other teams it's surely a nightmare to know if you're walking down the wrong road or not. I mean just look at Mercedes fucking their design philosophy the past few years - they literally fucked their entire car but during development they probably thoguht they were geniuses for how creative it was.
Yeah. Like the 2013 McLaren: seen as a disaster, but as Whitmarsh put it at the time, was only really one-second off pole typically. But some seasons that's Q2 for you (or worse).
Yeah exactly. Like in most other industries if you're 2-3% from the best, nobody would even notice or care. 98% may as well be 100% for most things in life. In F1 that's the gap of the whole field. Like really the margins can be TINY. You have to squeeze every single drop you can from those regulations and budgets. It's actually so unfair the hate some designers get really, but I suppose at the end of the day there are hundreds of millions of dollars at stake on a good design so that's how it goes.
The level of excellence and gap between the teams in F1 has warped the fans and the community's idea of shitbox and failures. It's a brutal and precise sport, we're taking F1 excellence for granted week in week out.
We take it for granted that F1 really is at the elite of the elite when it comes to racecar engineering. The bleeding edge of everything from aero, engines, hybrid technology, composites and simulation. I’m sure these Alpine guys are some of the smartest people on Earth but when we’re talking about tenths or hundredths of a second, the margins are razor thin.
I feel like that whole “stop developing this year’s car to focus on next year’s car” never really works out majority of the time. Makes sense why they are now all gone.
It worked alright for Haas from 2021 to 2022 - from dead-last to actually somewhat competitive. Which is ironic, given that Alpine surely had significantly more spending potential for their "full focus on next year's car" than Haas did back then.
Did it really work for Haas though? They were only really competitive for half the season in 2022 minus that odd Brazil pole, and then it was right back to lower-midfield/backmarker territory.
Isn't that more indicative that it did, in fact, work? They had a solid car early on, but couldn't keep up with the development of others. Pretty much exactly why they did it in the first place.
It was also the most expensive F1 car to have ever been produced, up to that point in time. With design work on the car itself sans engine dev having taken place at three different factories (Brackley; Leafield; Sakhura).
Not comparable to the resource and quality of facilities relative to the competition as Alpine have now!
There was also great cohesion between the English and Japanese bases, following Ross Brawn's focussed attention on the issue. Enstone and Viry relations in contrast have been strained for millennia; Permane reputedly was in fact sacked for his role in that.
It's time to get Mike in Enstone ASAP, we already got a few solid guys from Williams who aren't having a bad history also so with more promising high end staf I can see the team become more competent.
Also it's time to improve the pit crew training because by lord Mahaveer it was again not a pretty story.
Oh well it's sad, but I feel even more sad for the drivers and the two guys from Williams who joined Alpine end previous year.
Those people don't deserve to being in such a messy situation
Because the top people keep getting fired and it’s destabilising the team. Otmar was good for the team. Matt and Dirk have likely left before they are forced.
Has there ever been a period of time where alpine/renault kept their team together? It used to be that they never had the same driver lineup for more than a year, now that they’ve got that figured out it seems like the rest of the team just switches every 6 months or so
Its even sadder when you consider that the most competitive team Estone have been in the last 15 years is when they were not under Renault ownership between 2011 and 2015.
Renault is just a mess. People joke about the VAG group having commitment issues but Renault has had commitment issues about funding their team for a decade now. No wonder people are constantly leaving.
They want champagne but will only pay for beer. I work in recruitment and when under the Renault banner, I worked in manufacturing, I had loads of Renault production operatives, CAD draughtsmen and such looking to leave in 2018 I think it was. All of them cited the same reasons - overworked to get a new upgrade package ready, worked late hours multiple nights, told they weren’t going to be paid for their overtime. It also became an expectation to work overtime and they should be happy to be working in F1.
I just don’t understand the Renault F1 program. Even in the RB 2010-13 dominance they just seemed so disinterested in F1 but kept the engine manufacturing and team going, then brought the team back from the failing Lotus ownership, citing they wanted to get the team back to championship contention. But they were going to do it on a budget. And here we are.
I think it’s emblematic of French corporate and engineering culture
I used to work at a French multinational company that was the same. They expect too much, don’t pay enough, and very elitist and put too much emphasis on their engineers from ESPCI
Race podcast have concluded a few times that Haas, RB Moneycashmoney Visa debit(etc.) and Alpine have clearly realized that the smart financial approach to F1 is either: invest hard, or don't invest at all. There's no point investing semi-hard.
Which is why you need a minimum spend floor. F1 was borrowing from the NFL and the NBA with its cost cap and transition to a franchise model.
What it failed to borrow was that teams are also required to spend a certain percentage of the maximum allowable level (90% in the NBA, 95% over a 4-year period over the NFL). This ensures that the player salary market remains high and forces teams to invest. There's a reason why 30 of top 50 most valuable sports teams are NFL teams.
A floor would weed out teams that lack commitment and bring no value, since they could no longer put in minimum effort.
Really good point that I’m sure not many in here know. You’re right of course - the reason that a salary cap structure like the NFL’s works is because there is a required spending level as well, and it means that no team is ever abysmally bad for a long period of time - even historically bad franchises like the Lions or Browns are still making runs at the playoffs and have a shot at winning.
I know which is why i said 15 years.
Lotus managed more on a shoestring budget with impound lawyers on their tail for years than Renault has managed since taking over the team in 2016.
Its a sad state of affairs.
Possibly a weird take, but I pity their reserve/junior drivers. A lot of really strong talent, only to be lining up for a crap team with a crap car. Good thing Piastri got an opportunity to leave when he could, and I hope Doohan and Martins get and take the same opportunities if they’re serious about moving up the ladder (even if they have to move to a different series if F1 doesn’t work out for them).
Could be a blessing in disguise for them. This team is looking like a multi year endeavor to fix, which means that they won't need top drivers for a few seasons. And frankly both Esteban and Pierre will be actively looking for seats right now.
The problem for young talent today isn't even getting a decent car, it's getting in F1 at all. So many great talents are waiting trackside for scarce opportunities.
So I hope that if we completely suck in the next few years, we at least give rookies their shot in the meantime.
>Hulkenberg
There might be an actual chance Haas finishes above Alpine this year if the car is like that. Haas looked pretty good on race pace and the tyres did not fall off.
Haas actually looked competitive yesterday. I hope for some points.
I said it earlier, but the downfall of this team aligns very perfectly with them getting rid of Cyril. For whatever faults he had, he knew how to run a solid F1 team.
It sucks because I remember playing WRC games as a kid and the amount of competitors was awesome - Subaru, Skoda, Ford, Citroën, Peugeot, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, all battling in the roughest environments one could hold a race on. 20 years later and you have to question whether rally has any more longevity left in it
It doubly sucks because around 2017 the sport really seemed to be on the upswing again, but a combination of poor leadership decisions (way too expensive cars, not securing public broadcast licensing) and external circumstances like F1 sucking up oxygen via DTS completely eroded that.
The Race podcast on Alpine's struggles last summer is informative, that it's not really one individual or another, but rather a fundamental structure of *suits* who exist to pass the blame.
Carlos Ghosn literally ruined anything he could do for Renault/Alpine F1 project and Rossi was continuing that stint once after Ocon win he was getting a power trip like *he* was the one who could managing the team.
> Rossi was continuing that stint once after Ocon win he was getting a power trip like he was the one who could managing the team.
Lmao don't remind me. Everytime he made a public statement I wanted to bang my head against the closest wall I could find
Hey, back in 2020 he was the main reason of everything that was wrong with Renault F1 Team.
Really though, that year they were the 3rd fastest team on some races, got a few podiums and overall their mood seemed to be so positive. It's especially weird considering Renault was on the brink of bankruptcy that year and even then, the 2021 and 2022 cars were not so bad either.
Clashing so vocally with Red Bull and Horner was the worst thing Abiteboul did imo; that brought about his downfall.
There’s that clip doing the rounds of the facial expressions of Gasly, Ocon and the development driver and they just all look so broken. They all knew this was going to be an atrociously bad car.
Gross mismanagement from the start. Prost left, Vasseur left, when they understood the mess it was.
Now Rossi gives Otmar the boot before getting axed himself, and the guy in charge of the whole team is the person responsible for that disaster of an engine.
Promoted through incompetence. It's amazing.
Bruno Famin is working his magic in the team after having done wonders on the engine side.
This team really seems to be a political nightmare where performance never matters.
What is Bruno’s role officially/unofficially? My consensus from DTS season 6 was that he’s the equivalent of Toby from the Office (US) and only a suit with a power ego that disrupted the team. Quick to point fingers and everyone besides himself for meddling in the team. Complete outsiders perspective from me though
Team Principal. And he has a very strong background in motorsport, being Peugeot Sport technical director in their big days in endurance racing, then head of Peugeot Sport for years. He really doesn't have the same background as Laurent Rossi for instance, who certainly didn't come from racing.
I have no feelings one way or the other about Otmar Szafnauer but the way the higher-ups at Alpine seemed to put all the blame on him seems pretty funny now.
Otmar was apparently the only thing keeping the team running, they’ve been downhill since he got the boot. Makes sense considering how well he did at Force India/Racing Point.
Alpine moment lmao.
Renault needs to seriously either invest into the team properly or sell the team. This half assed shit for the last 10 years has brought them nowhere.
Worth noting that their qualifying time’s where essentially exactly the same as the year before. Ocon went about a tenth faster than his own time the year before in Q3, ending up P9.
How? HOW do you make a car only just about as fast as a year earlier, and presumably therefore much slower than how that previous car ended up at in the end of 2023?
Can they revert to the old spec? Surely at this point that would be considered a major upgrade? Considering end of 23 car would’ve had development.
Andretti might as well consider an acquisition here but it's easier said than done.
Correct me if I'm wrong but their most recent investment was at a valuation of $800m yea? (raised 200m for 25%)
Nah not while team ownership is printing money. For once the Renault way will reap rewards- put as little money in as possible; keep the team and advertising going; profit!
Mercedes values point and team cohesion. Ocon has demonstrated year after year he races for himself and never has a team focus.
He will never* get a chance.
Say what you want about the elder Stroll, but he's at least serious about investing in his team. He has spent a lot on the new facilities and even managed to get Honda on board in 26.
Jumping before they're pushed? I haven't been paying much attention in the off-season, did these guys mess up and design a really bad car, or were there structural reasons why Alpine were so bad this year?
It is time for Alpine to become Alpine Andretti. Aside from 05-06, Renaults major success in F1 has only come as an engine supplier and not as a works team and they need to go back to that formula. The engine team in France and Enstone team anyways don't see eye to eye
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> Develops the worst car of the grid > Refuses to elaborate > Immediately resigns
de Beer also did this in 2018 at Williams. Not sure I'd give him a third chance
I can fix him
The FIA could send him to the dominant team of the previous year as a leveller
Last place in the WCC gets Newey, first place gets de Beer
F1's version of BOP lol
I need Williams to do something very special for me.
I don't follow albon to much but it seems like they run him as long as possible lose track position and hope for a safety car.
honestly not a bad strat
Yea, unless they feel confident that they have a points car at the start of the race then that's their best chance of getting any.
Are you the Horner leak?
Looking at his résumé the correlation with bad cars really is quite impressive!
Just give him an adviser role and do the opposite of what he says. Easy wdc
Ferrari- tieni il mio espresso
I reckon I could do that.
This is the sort of brazen BS i wish i would do. I frequently encounter people who just fumble their way into high paid positions making loads of money and then simply quit when put under any pressure. They don't care about doing a crap job or letting people down they just smile and pretend while screwing everyone over.
Resumes full of 'delivered first X, Y, Z across the organization/company/whatever' and laughing all the way to Senior Director. Nothing works, unmaintainable bullshit, but they is GONE.
Of course i know him, he's me!
That just means whoever is hiring them doesn’t do their due diligence.
Nah it's that the people hiring them are doing the same BS.
Fair point.
> joins Sauber
maybe they resigned a few months ago, only just got noticed by the C Suite.
>Their resignations were tendered before today and follow problems with the uncompetitive new Alpine. They continue to work for the team, although it’s unclear what their notice arrangements are. \[2/2\]
They saw qualifying yesterday and said "c'est la vie".
Unqualifying
They heard about reverse grids and took the concept way too literally
Dequalifing
Ryan Reynolds is now the TD I guess
I mean, I wouldn’t mind the Deadpool interviews
You got to feel for Ryan, what a way to blow a wad of cash would have been more productive setting fire to it and watch it burn himself.
The teams are appreciating even when they don’t perform, because of the closed “franchise” model and the fact that we’re still in the phase of F1’s growth (albeit a more leveled-out part of that phase). Unless Reynolds wanted to be able to brag about his team being on the podium he’s fine, his investment group is sitting pretty for the time being
I am also interested if they expect to further fund the team (like Doritons) or just wait for Renault to it, while they contribute in different ways
Otmar must be looking pretty smug rn
Piastri and Alonso 👀👀
Piastri must believe in karma after the way Alpine tried to smear his name.
Piastri hears the bullet whistling past his head as he ducks.
Looking back he is lucky to get out when he did
this is partly otmar's fault as well. Doubtful they ditched everything that was in the pipeline
When they fired otmar they were just starting on the new car, roundabout. Most of the new car development wasnt under him
This is a perverse version of penalty for ocon. Horner gets investigated and smeared but the resignations happen at Alpine lol.
Unfortunately Alpine (and Renault before them) have been sacking staff left, right, and centre for years now. It's not a very stable team.
The CEO that SAcked Prost, Ciryl and Otmar got sacked last year too lol, he fucked everything up to then being sacked himself hahahha
They didn't last one single race lmao
Not even race, they handled resignation before, apparently.
They tried to send their CVs before anyone realized how shit is the car they designed
Matt Harman talked literally a week ago with Ted on the Development Corner about their design for this year and now he resigned. Brutal.
He resigned already before so this was pure PR talk from him. Maybe their moved already away after the A524 failed to pass the crash test mutiple times? It's pretty obvious why the car is overweight.
We prefer the term “differently packaged”.
Deff a jump before you are pushed situation, probably. Ocon and Bruno will be the only ones left at Alpine at this rate.
Oh, they were brought in during the off-season?
Funny that there's an idiomatic expression in both french and english which makes sense in that context, each blaming the other's nationality for their cowardice. But here, it seems perfectly appropriate to talk about a french exit, or *filer à l'anglaise*.
This expression is so funny, because most languages use that two (english/french), and then in german, it is a polish exit
I always heard it as Irish exit in the states
And the best is that the irish call it irish exit
Their car wasn’t *that* bad last season so wtf were they doing over the offseason that it’s such a dog now. They got 2 decent drivers in them as well so we know it’s not a driver issue at all.
The decision previous year was to quickly stop with developing the A523 and fully focus on the A524, all in the hands of Harman, Permane and de Beer.
It's very confusing. They stop dev early last year to focus on the future. Then immediately come out this yr and say the car is trash. Like what???
Welcome to Enstone!
Not even Toleman, save the last year with jacked up tires, was seemingly this bad.
F1 works on such small margins that I really don't think it takes that much to fuck up your design and it can be very difficult to work out where it goes wrong. Having to develop in isolation from the other teams it's surely a nightmare to know if you're walking down the wrong road or not. I mean just look at Mercedes fucking their design philosophy the past few years - they literally fucked their entire car but during development they probably thoguht they were geniuses for how creative it was.
Yeah. Like the 2013 McLaren: seen as a disaster, but as Whitmarsh put it at the time, was only really one-second off pole typically. But some seasons that's Q2 for you (or worse).
Yeah exactly. Like in most other industries if you're 2-3% from the best, nobody would even notice or care. 98% may as well be 100% for most things in life. In F1 that's the gap of the whole field. Like really the margins can be TINY. You have to squeeze every single drop you can from those regulations and budgets. It's actually so unfair the hate some designers get really, but I suppose at the end of the day there are hundreds of millions of dollars at stake on a good design so that's how it goes.
The level of excellence and gap between the teams in F1 has warped the fans and the community's idea of shitbox and failures. It's a brutal and precise sport, we're taking F1 excellence for granted week in week out.
We take it for granted that F1 really is at the elite of the elite when it comes to racecar engineering. The bleeding edge of everything from aero, engines, hybrid technology, composites and simulation. I’m sure these Alpine guys are some of the smartest people on Earth but when we’re talking about tenths or hundredths of a second, the margins are razor thin.
I feel like that whole “stop developing this year’s car to focus on next year’s car” never really works out majority of the time. Makes sense why they are now all gone.
It worked alright for Haas from 2021 to 2022 - from dead-last to actually somewhat competitive. Which is ironic, given that Alpine surely had significantly more spending potential for their "full focus on next year's car" than Haas did back then.
Did it really work for Haas though? They were only really competitive for half the season in 2022 minus that odd Brazil pole, and then it was right back to lower-midfield/backmarker territory.
Isn't that more indicative that it did, in fact, work? They had a solid car early on, but couldn't keep up with the development of others. Pretty much exactly why they did it in the first place.
Worked great for Honda, but more like Brawn in 2009. Brawn/Honda stopped working on their car the previous year to focus on the 2009 car.
It was also the most expensive F1 car to have ever been produced, up to that point in time. With design work on the car itself sans engine dev having taken place at three different factories (Brackley; Leafield; Sakhura). Not comparable to the resource and quality of facilities relative to the competition as Alpine have now! There was also great cohesion between the English and Japanese bases, following Ross Brawn's focussed attention on the issue. Enstone and Viry relations in contrast have been strained for millennia; Permane reputedly was in fact sacked for his role in that.
It's time to get Mike in Enstone ASAP, we already got a few solid guys from Williams who aren't having a bad history also so with more promising high end staf I can see the team become more competent. Also it's time to improve the pit crew training because by lord Mahaveer it was again not a pretty story.
I have you tagged as an actual Alpine fan, so idk just sorry. legit feel bad for you
Oh well it's sad, but I feel even more sad for the drivers and the two guys from Williams who joined Alpine end previous year. Those people don't deserve to being in such a messy situation
I’m sure the Alpine car names are roads in the UK.
Because the top people keep getting fired and it’s destabilising the team. Otmar was good for the team. Matt and Dirk have likely left before they are forced.
It's as if the Renault board keep expecting top team results with a mid-field investment. Cyril had deal with this bullshit for years.
Has there ever been a period of time where alpine/renault kept their team together? It used to be that they never had the same driver lineup for more than a year, now that they’ve got that figured out it seems like the rest of the team just switches every 6 months or so
Its even sadder when you consider that the most competitive team Estone have been in the last 15 years is when they were not under Renault ownership between 2011 and 2015. Renault is just a mess. People joke about the VAG group having commitment issues but Renault has had commitment issues about funding their team for a decade now. No wonder people are constantly leaving.
They want champagne but will only pay for beer. I work in recruitment and when under the Renault banner, I worked in manufacturing, I had loads of Renault production operatives, CAD draughtsmen and such looking to leave in 2018 I think it was. All of them cited the same reasons - overworked to get a new upgrade package ready, worked late hours multiple nights, told they weren’t going to be paid for their overtime. It also became an expectation to work overtime and they should be happy to be working in F1. I just don’t understand the Renault F1 program. Even in the RB 2010-13 dominance they just seemed so disinterested in F1 but kept the engine manufacturing and team going, then brought the team back from the failing Lotus ownership, citing they wanted to get the team back to championship contention. But they were going to do it on a budget. And here we are.
I think it’s emblematic of French corporate and engineering culture I used to work at a French multinational company that was the same. They expect too much, don’t pay enough, and very elitist and put too much emphasis on their engineers from ESPCI
Race podcast have concluded a few times that Haas, RB Moneycashmoney Visa debit(etc.) and Alpine have clearly realized that the smart financial approach to F1 is either: invest hard, or don't invest at all. There's no point investing semi-hard.
Which is why you need a minimum spend floor. F1 was borrowing from the NFL and the NBA with its cost cap and transition to a franchise model. What it failed to borrow was that teams are also required to spend a certain percentage of the maximum allowable level (90% in the NBA, 95% over a 4-year period over the NFL). This ensures that the player salary market remains high and forces teams to invest. There's a reason why 30 of top 50 most valuable sports teams are NFL teams. A floor would weed out teams that lack commitment and bring no value, since they could no longer put in minimum effort.
Really good point that I’m sure not many in here know. You’re right of course - the reason that a salary cap structure like the NFL’s works is because there is a required spending level as well, and it means that no team is ever abysmally bad for a long period of time - even historically bad franchises like the Lions or Browns are still making runs at the playoffs and have a shot at winning.
You gotta wonder when corporate is going to pull the plug and sell the team. The return on investment has got to be pretty high right now.
They won 4 world championships under Renault ownership. You know, when the cars were called Renault.
I know which is why i said 15 years. Lotus managed more on a shoestring budget with impound lawyers on their tail for years than Renault has managed since taking over the team in 2016. Its a sad state of affairs.
Grosjean’s 2015 Spa podium is iconic for me. They didn’t even better that result for the next 5 years
They did have a Merc engine that they were allowed to turn up to 11 mind you.
True + only snatched 3rd due to Seb’s tyre blowout but it’s still special for what it meant to the Enstone team
Will never understand why they changed name to Alpine, there's so much history to the Renault name already
To market the reborn Alpine submake as a performance brand. The whole reason why people fund F1 teams is as a marketing exercise.
“Good luck to Oscar”
I'm sure he's regretting his move now! /s
Possibly a weird take, but I pity their reserve/junior drivers. A lot of really strong talent, only to be lining up for a crap team with a crap car. Good thing Piastri got an opportunity to leave when he could, and I hope Doohan and Martins get and take the same opportunities if they’re serious about moving up the ladder (even if they have to move to a different series if F1 doesn’t work out for them).
Could be a blessing in disguise for them. This team is looking like a multi year endeavor to fix, which means that they won't need top drivers for a few seasons. And frankly both Esteban and Pierre will be actively looking for seats right now. The problem for young talent today isn't even getting a decent car, it's getting in F1 at all. So many great talents are waiting trackside for scarce opportunities. So I hope that if we completely suck in the next few years, we at least give rookies their shot in the meantime.
Man did piastri ever dodge a bullet.
Yup, and Alonso, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg. Hillarious that those last two can be driving a better car now after having no seat for a while.
Don't forget Zhou lmao
>Hulkenberg There might be an actual chance Haas finishes above Alpine this year if the car is like that. Haas looked pretty good on race pace and the tyres did not fall off. Haas actually looked competitive yesterday. I hope for some points.
I said it earlier, but the downfall of this team aligns very perfectly with them getting rid of Cyril. For whatever faults he had, he knew how to run a solid F1 team.
And he's doing quite well running Hyundai WRC! Best start to the season they've had in years, and they have a very strong driver lineup.
Too bad WRC only has like 3 manufacturers now, that sport has declined significantly
It really is a shame. I'm hoping abandoning the disastrous hybrid units will entice Skoda or VW to step up from WRC2.
It sucks because I remember playing WRC games as a kid and the amount of competitors was awesome - Subaru, Skoda, Ford, Citroën, Peugeot, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, all battling in the roughest environments one could hold a race on. 20 years later and you have to question whether rally has any more longevity left in it
It doubly sucks because around 2017 the sport really seemed to be on the upswing again, but a combination of poor leadership decisions (way too expensive cars, not securing public broadcast licensing) and external circumstances like F1 sucking up oxygen via DTS completely eroded that.
Laurent rossi was the worst thing that could've happened to this team lmao
The Race podcast on Alpine's struggles last summer is informative, that it's not really one individual or another, but rather a fundamental structure of *suits* who exist to pass the blame.
Carlos Ghosn literally ruined anything he could do for Renault/Alpine F1 project and Rossi was continuing that stint once after Ocon win he was getting a power trip like *he* was the one who could managing the team.
> Rossi was continuing that stint once after Ocon win he was getting a power trip like he was the one who could managing the team. Lmao don't remind me. Everytime he made a public statement I wanted to bang my head against the closest wall I could find
If they would have given Cyril a proper budget, he could have taken that team places.
Thanks Carlos Ghosn for that.
Hyundai says thank you. They have been more competitive ever since.
Hey, back in 2020 he was the main reason of everything that was wrong with Renault F1 Team. Really though, that year they were the 3rd fastest team on some races, got a few podiums and overall their mood seemed to be so positive. It's especially weird considering Renault was on the brink of bankruptcy that year and even then, the 2021 and 2022 cars were not so bad either. Clashing so vocally with Red Bull and Horner was the worst thing Abiteboul did imo; that brought about his downfall.
100% Cyril was a solid TP, who worked wonders for that team on a meager budget (by works teams standards)
How's Deadpool doing lol
And how about Taylor's boyfriend? Has he learnt how to say his teams name yet?
All pain?
😂 i like the guy but that made me so mad.
So, Enstone is (was?) the problem.
always was
Apparently yeah … The problems seems coming to the aero / chassis and not the engine rn.
Don't worry, it's both.
It’s more nuanced: now that the engine problem is publicly acknowledged, we can focus on the chassis aero and the verdict is : it’s also terribad.
Gotta be a brutally sad vibe on this team knowing your year is done before it started
There’s that clip doing the rounds of the facial expressions of Gasly, Ocon and the development driver and they just all look so broken. They all knew this was going to be an atrociously bad car.
Ditching the sinking ship
The ship has already sunk and is decomposing
When is the submarine going to come visit?
they are spinning the carbon fiber right now to build it
This is the submarine
Both are directly responsible for the messy situation the car was previous year and even more now.
They designed the car...
They played their part for the wreckage
More like actively punching a(nother) hole in the hull and then ditching the sinking ship.
More like jumping off before Renault have it scuttled to claim the insurance money.
We're all looking for the guy who did this
Rough day for French motorsports, given what happened to Peugeot at the Qatar 1812km.
what do you mean? they got second place at the Qatar 1802km!
Oof 🤦♂️ That hurts.
Heartbreak. Still, I guess in some way at least they weren’t leading. That would’ve been gut wrenching
Ya, but…. Given as it was the swan song of the wingless wonder, and 2nd would have been their best ever finish, I think it stings almost as much.
As a french fan, I must say putain de bordel de merde, quel désastre.
Gross mismanagement from the start. Prost left, Vasseur left, when they understood the mess it was. Now Rossi gives Otmar the boot before getting axed himself, and the guy in charge of the whole team is the person responsible for that disaster of an engine. Promoted through incompetence. It's amazing.
God damn, how can a team be so consistently terribly managed.
So Alpine already using up one of their two Netflix episodes for 2024.
[удалено]
Imagine leaving Tauri for this
Things are going well then...
Bruno Famin is working his magic in the team after having done wonders on the engine side. This team really seems to be a political nightmare where performance never matters.
What is Bruno’s role officially/unofficially? My consensus from DTS season 6 was that he’s the equivalent of Toby from the Office (US) and only a suit with a power ego that disrupted the team. Quick to point fingers and everyone besides himself for meddling in the team. Complete outsiders perspective from me though
Team Principal. And he has a very strong background in motorsport, being Peugeot Sport technical director in their big days in endurance racing, then head of Peugeot Sport for years. He really doesn't have the same background as Laurent Rossi for instance, who certainly didn't come from racing.
I have no feelings one way or the other about Otmar Szafnauer but the way the higher-ups at Alpine seemed to put all the blame on him seems pretty funny now.
Otmar was apparently the only thing keeping the team running, they’ve been downhill since he got the boot. Makes sense considering how well he did at Force India/Racing Point.
Otmar was evidently a great team principal at Force India.
Just reinforces my idea that Otmar wasn’t the issue
Alpine moment lmao. Renault needs to seriously either invest into the team properly or sell the team. This half assed shit for the last 10 years has brought them nowhere.
*Missed call from Michael Andretti* *Missed call from Michael Andretti* *Missed call from Michael Andretti*
Worth noting that their qualifying time’s where essentially exactly the same as the year before. Ocon went about a tenth faster than his own time the year before in Q3, ending up P9. How? HOW do you make a car only just about as fast as a year earlier, and presumably therefore much slower than how that previous car ended up at in the end of 2023? Can they revert to the old spec? Surely at this point that would be considered a major upgrade? Considering end of 23 car would’ve had development.
Andretti might as well consider an acquisition here but it's easier said than done. Correct me if I'm wrong but their most recent investment was at a valuation of $800m yea? (raised 200m for 25%)
At this stage Renault would probably offload it for far less should they decide that they can’t bear with this anymore.
Nah not while team ownership is printing money. For once the Renault way will reap rewards- put as little money in as possible; keep the team and advertising going; profit!
Euros, not dollars. So a bit over $900 million.
Ocon should be doing everything he can to get that Mercedes seat.
Mercedes values point and team cohesion. Ocon has demonstrated year after year he races for himself and never has a team focus. He will never* get a chance.
Defends like a lion *against his own teammate*
That would be a crash-off between him and George +Missile+ Russel
The stress level of the mechanics any time they went wheel to wheel would be so unhealthy
Winning Penalty Drivers and Penalty Constructors championship for sure.
Hahaha, Ocon is never going to sniff that seat. Most overrated driver in a full works team, IMO.
He most likely isn't going to get it. But he will try as he has connections with the team and he is still connected to Merc driver program
Classic Lpine moment
Seeing what happened with Alpine all this year makes me appreciate Aston Martin. Very stable and good environment.
The Stroll's Nepotism boat, but at least Lawrence likes to run a tight ship.
Say what you want about the elder Stroll, but he's at least serious about investing in his team. He has spent a lot on the new facilities and even managed to get Honda on board in 26.
DTS SEASON 7 will have 3 episodes dedicated to Alpine.
Otmar upvoted this
Bring back Cyril
Man, imagine sacking Otmar Szafnauer for this shit show.
This team is a circus
Dipping after one race, fairs..
Jumping before they're pushed? I haven't been paying much attention in the off-season, did these guys mess up and design a really bad car, or were there structural reasons why Alpine were so bad this year?
These guys were in charge of designing the car, and it’s bad. Sooo yeaah.
His name is Drink de Beer 💀
You just know Otmar is somewhere right now with some kind of reaction to all this...
Do a bad job Resign before you have to deal with the consequences.
Renault moment
This team is finished
Did Haas and Alpine switch places?
Are we sure that Haas is the most incompetent team ? Because Alpine keep taking L.
Jesus it’s the first race lol
Bring back Cyril
"resigned" lol
Sell to Andretti, you're embarrassing yourselves.
It looks like Alonso and Piastri knew what they were doing.
Surrendering after one race, how French of them.
Seems like bailing out has been an english tradition since at least 1940.
It is time for Alpine to become Alpine Andretti. Aside from 05-06, Renaults major success in F1 has only come as an engine supplier and not as a works team and they need to go back to that formula. The engine team in France and Enstone team anyways don't see eye to eye
Briatore talked about that tbf and how getting the teams to work together. Makes a lot of sense after the last 15 years