Alpine chief executive Laurent Rossi has given team principal Otmar Szafnauer his vote of confidence by asserting he is "one of the hires I'm most proud of".
It was a difficult summer for the Enstone team, which saw Fernando Alonso grow frustrated with contract renewal talks and decide to leave for Aston Martin. That was compounded by his planned replacement, Oscar Piastri, turning down the chance to drive for the team in 2023.
Instead, the Australian wanted to defect to their midfield rivals McLaren, and was allowed to do so after a legal battle. Before the ruling of the Contracts Recognition Board, Szafnauer had been talking about how "confident" he was that they had the valid paperwork to keep Piastri.
Now that McLaren have secured his signature, their chief executive Zak Brown suggested Szafnauer had been "silly" for talking so much during the proceedings. In any case, the public nature of the spat did not reflect well on Alpine – nor did losing Alonso and Piastri to rivals for next year.
It certainly isn't all bad for Alpine, though. They are winning the battle for fourth place in the constructors' championship with six races to go, and have had a fast car all year – reliability problems have been their undoing on most occasions where results haven't been what they would have wanted.
Perhaps that is why Rossi remains pleased with his decision to hire Szafnauer from Aston Martin, despite all the drama over drivers. "Otmar is, by the way, one of the hires I'm most proud of, because he's delivering every day since he arrived," the Frenchman told The Race.
"On topics like that [driver contracts] we stay close. So we knew all of the developments. We would agree sometimes on maximums, limits, boundaries. Because, of course, we need to be aligned, and I need to know. But there was no real disconnection between us."
Much had been made of Szafnauer's claim that he had not been told in advance about Alonso's decision to leave, but Rossi put that down to a misunderstanding after taking a step back from the F1 team himself. "I simply am connected to [Szafnauer] and I know everything that's going on," he added. "The fact that I'm not around, perhaps confused Fernando.
"But it's normal. And it's going to be even more so in the future. Because Otmar is the boss. I trust him fully, he is doing an excellent job. So it gives me that peace of mind, I trust he is going to continue growing the team."
