Renault bosses wanted success sooner - Szafnauer

Outgoing Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer says the team’s owners “had a shorter timeframe in mind” for success that led to his departure.

Szafnauer will leave Alpine after this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, with both he and sporting director Alan Permane departing “by mutual agreement.” As recently as in Budapest last weekend, Szafnauer was clear that he felt he would continue in his role despite Bruno Famin’s appointment as VP of Alpine Motorsports above him but says the situation changed “not long ago” that has resulted him in leaving.

"Well, we had a double DNF in Hungary,” Szafnauer said about what had changed. “Not great, but. Anyway... the thing that really changed is I had a timeline in mind for changing the team, making it better. That timeline, I thought it was realistic, because I know what it takes. I’ve done it before. I think some of the senior management at Renault had a shorter timeline in mind.”

Confirming it was more aggressive than he wanted, Szafnauer added: “If you can’t reconcile that -- I think one thing, they think another -- it’s best to part ways.

“I’ve always said Mercedes took five years from buying a winning team. Red Bull took five years from buying Jaguar, which was a pretty solid mid-grid team. It takes time. That’s what it takes.”

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Szafnauer confirmed he will have a year-long period of "gardening leave" after seeing out his duties at Spa-Francorchamps but still want to return to F1.

“As far as Formula 1 teams I’ll be a free agent from end of July ’24. But rest of the world I’m OK.

“This is what I know. I still think I have good skills in building a team that can perform. I know how to do it, I just need to be given the latitude and the time to do it. If somebody needs those skills then I’ll stay around.”