F1 News
'Alpine will quit F1 or fail with this approach'
F1 analyst and former F1 driver Karun Chandhok sees things going in the wrong direction at Alpine. According to the Briton, Renault is heading for a farewell to F1 with its current course. 'Either they are already quitting F1 or they will fail.'
Things are going badly for Alpine
So says Chandhok to Sky Sports F1. 'It is organisationally a mess at Renault's F1 team'. Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permane were sacked from the Alpine F1 Team just before the F1 summer break. It is also a difficult situation financially for Renault. It seems unclear what the carmaker should do with the team.
According to Chandhok, the biggest problem is that there is a lack of vision within the brand. "The reality is that they are the sixth best team on the grid with the sixth fastest car, but they are the third largest global brand in the automotive world. Your results are not good enough. My concern is if they are going to continue with managers who come from outside the world of motorsport and F1."
Either they quit themselves, or things go wrong
Chandhok sees that Alpine mainly has a lot of staff who have moved on from Renault's street car department. Chandhok compares the situation to Toyota in Formula 1 20 years ago. Chandhok: "They [Alpine] are going down a path where they can throw in the towel with Formula 1 or they are going down a corporate path that I am convinced is not going to work.”
The analyst looks surprised at how the team has let Permane go after 33 years and failed to make sure to keep Pat Fry in. "For me, they have fired important people in the operational aspect and from within the track, So I think you already know where your problems are.”