Szafnauer reveals the brutal details of his Alpine sacking
F1 News
Otmar Szafnauer has uncovered some brutal details behind his Alpine F1 dismissal. The former F1 team principal said he was sacked over a Zoom call and explained how he was asked to make a cultural change he didn't agree with.
Szafnauer left Alpine after the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix weekend, but the boss knew about the decision a week before it was made public. He uncovered the details during an interview on the High Performance Podcast. "[It was delivered] just in a Zoom call from the head of Renault HR. The Renault Group HR," Szafnauer said.
Why was Szafnauer dismissed?
"There were suggestions that I needed to change the corporate culture in a way that I didn't think was the right way to do it. I know how to change corporate culture into a culture that has a winning mentality and psychological safety which I was on my way of doing," he continued before supplying details about the change.
"They wanted a corporate culture change in a different manner to get rid of some people that were doing a good job that have been there for a long time. And my thought was, well, if you get rid of people that do a good job, then the message you send is: do a good job, get fired. That's not the culture that you really want," he added.
After his sacking, the American-Romanian then took part in an F1 commission meeting where he stood up for Alpine and fought for them to get an allowance to improve their power unit.
Alpine has struggled since he left, and currently find themselves 9th in the Constructors' World Championship. But Szafnauer doesn't believe this is because he was sacked. Instead, he pins the blame on the high turnover of staff. "It's not because I left. It's because a mass of people left. Those people who left actually did a good job. Most of them are at other teams now," he concluded.