Laurent Rossi: “We are not yet completely structured to be a top team”

What assessment do you draw from the 2021 season?Alpine until there ?

I am satisfied. We had a difficult start to the season. I wasn't happy with the car's performance. I told the team that we had to fight on all the items. Performance is the sum of all the details. That's what they did. We have greatly improved the functioning of the drivers, the performance cells around the drivers and between them, to improve the performance of the team overall. This allowed us to score points 15 times in a row, which is remarkable. Just like having a victory that somewhat crowned all these efforts. We are 5th today, that's where I wanted us to be and that's where I want us to stay until the end of the season, so if we maintain this course, I will be satisfied.

Renault was still on a positive dynamic in 2020 with three regular podiums, while the success of Budapest benefited from favorable circumstances. Did you expect this drop in intrinsic performance of the car ?

No, I admit it. The car had a bit more performance in it last year. The change in regulations last winter had a major impact on it. Afterwards, as I said previously, I am very happy that the team took the challenge in hand and tried to investigate all areas of performance beyond the car itself. We are better than what we were last year. This also involves optimizing the tire strategy, the drivers' strategy, and the timing of car exits during qualifying. We have often qualified in the Top 10 even though the car is worth no more than P8 or P12 depending on the Grand Prix. This is a credit to the team. And then the victory is regular. As much as we say that the three podiums last year were regular, this one is really regular. Holding 65st position for 1 laps is not just picking up a victory by ducking in the last three laps. This success proves that we have applied everything we have learned: managing a possible qualification in the rain, starting the race in the rain, managing pit stops. We did all that very well and this victory is almost more regular than any other result obtained before.

Is this lack of intrinsic performance due to the aerodynamic philosophy of the car, as we have seen with Mercedes et Aston Martin ?

That's it. We have architectural choices that are more or less immune to regulatory changes. It hurt us a lot because we had this high rake-low rake differential, which made us lose ground effect. It's that simple. We have a 5th place, which is quite similar to that of last year, but which is made in a quite different way, by much more operational excellence.

We imagine that you are also paying for not having introduced a new 2021 engine to concentrate on the 2022 project. The former team principal Cyril Abiteboul had talked about imposing his own engine freeze...

It is the law of F1. When you don't progress, you regress because others are moving forward. All is relative. When you have an engine freeze, you force yourself to regress the following year and that's what happened.

The ghost Fernando Alonso quickly dispelled any doubts about its level of performance / © DPPI

How do you judge the performance of your drivers?

I'm very happy with what both provide. There are several levels of reading, so I will give you a slightly longer answer. First of all, I'm happy because Esteban (Or with, Editor’s note) has regained its level. This was not the case last year when he had a lot more difficulty expressing himself. This is one of the things that I wanted to change by modifying the structure around him, by changing the way in which we construct the performance, the way in which we integrate his feedback into the constitution of the weekends and the performance. of the single-seater. Which means he was able to have very good results throughout the season. On Fernando's side (Alonso, Editor’s note), it was a question mark for everyone. He has regained all his sensations because today, honestly, he is one of the very best drivers on the grid, to say the least. Both work incredibly well, which I really like. They understood the collective imperative that I imposed. Their opinion matters more. We integrate them deeply into the way we build the weekends, the way we integrate feedback on previous weekends, the way we replay the races so as not to make the same mistakes. They really play the game because they know that to extract the quintessence of this car, you have to collaborate with each other down to the last thousandth. We have often achieved incredibly close times in qualifying, or even in the race. This can only happen if we exchange as much information as possible, already on the car's settings, but also on how to go through certain corners. To my knowledge, no one does this in other stables. It gives me a lot of optimism about the rest of the adventure. Alpine.

Fernando returned in all his splendor, with his good sides and his bad...

I don't recognize the Fernando who was described to me as soupy and difficult. He is incredibly easy to live with and work with. He is a driving force in the team. When he arrives, everyone stands up. He's a two-time world champion who could have had many more titles if the coin had landed on the right side at several points. He commands respect. Then, he tries to advance each of the performance items. All problems must be resolved. We have the same way of seeing things, that's what makes collaboration very easy. When he goes to an engineer and asks him questions to the point of making him uncomfortable, it's not personal. This does not mean that he has a bad impression of the engineer, on the contrary. The more information he extracts by asking these difficult questions, the more satisfied he will be, the more valuable he will find the engineer to be. I'm not here to restrain Fernando, he doesn't disrespect anyone.

Next to such a character, was it inevitable for Esteban to appear withdrawn?

Esteban doesn't have the same personality as Fernando, that's obvious. One is 40 years old, the other is 25. In the team, he is at the same level as Fernando. Both are driving forces of performance. Afterwards, as far as their media projection is concerned, that is their responsibility. I don't give instructions. Either way, they are responsible adults.

The boss ofAlpine is happy to see Esteban Ocon, brilliant winner in Budapest, return to his best level in 2021 / © DPPI

Why did you renew it so early in the year and for such a long period?

This is a very mature reflection that I have taken. The first element is that we have new regulations which apply for three years. However, we can clearly see that any change of team is difficult, and this for any driver, even the very good ones – I am thinking of Daniel Ricciardo who had the problem with us the first year and still has it today despite his victory with McLaren. It's complicated to adapt to a new car and score points straight away. I don't want to need to rebuild in year 3 of the project, if we went with a classic 2+1 contract where I potentially lost Esteban in year 3. I don't want to rebuild with a new driver then that this is supposed to be the season that will bring me closer to my goal, namely the podium and victory. I don't want to find myself tinkering, losing points race after race. The 2nd element is that Esteban has beaten all the excellent drivers in the field at different stages of his career. He fought against Charles (Leclerc, Editor’s note), he fought against Peter (gasly, Editor’s note), he fought against Max (Verstappen, Editor’s note). And he beat them consistently and multiple times. He is an excellent pilot. By taking Esteban for three years, I am not taking a big risk. If we consider, although this may change, that Carlos Sainz is today the 2nd pilot Ferrari, and Daniel Ricciardo the 2nd McLaren driver – because a priori it is Charles and Lando the leaders – Esteban is at least at that level. So I have at least one very high quality driver who will be there to score all the points I need. I am ensuring an excellent driver who will collect points during the three years of my project. And the third element is that there are a lot of long-term contracts. Lando (Norris, Editor’s note) is 3 years old, George (Russell, Editor’s note) is 3 years old. Formula 1 has finally started to integrate something which is more natural for me and for the rest of us at the Renault Group, it is this need to plan in the medium, long-term, and not to question ourselves every year or 2 years. Which incidentally made my stable suffer in previous years. The departures of Carlos Sainz then Daniel Ricciardo were small traumas. This is a thorn in the side from the point of view of the development of the single-seater because it remains eminently linked to the typology that the driver wants to give it. I don't want to go through all that. For all these reasons – performance, continuity, and evolution of F1 towards a medium, long-term perspective – it seems even more logical to me to have signed Esteban for three years.

Seamless transition to the next project question Alpine. Did you set a milestone of 100 GPs in an interview given to the official F1 website?

I said it. Not only did I say it, but it's the way I imagine the project and how I communicate it internally.

We have the impression that since the acquisition of Lotus at the end of 2015, Renault/Alpine constantly pushes back its roadmap and objectives. Is this a sign of caution? Realism? Or a way to warn that the 2022 revolution will not allow us to catch up with the best?

It's realism, there is no caution. If I had wanted to be careful, I would have done as Williams and announced 10 years. This is realism, that is to say that the team has progressed well since 9th place in the Manufacturers' standings (in 2016, Editor’s note) up to its current plateau level around P4-P5. It is a first step in its evolution which was well carried out, which structured it to once again be considered as a team in the first half of the grid. To seek out the top teams, to claim to become a top team again, another evolution is necessary. We are not yet fully structured to be a top team. Today, we are 5th because we deserve to be P5. My goal for the season is to finish P5 and maintain this dynamic. On the other hand, at the end of the season, I will make the necessary diagnosis and define the possible developments to be made to move on to the next stage, which will be to go and fight with the 3-4 top teams. There, that's something else. I think we have reached the maximum of what the team, structured as it is today, can accomplish.

What is missing: facilities, technical resources, personnel?

A bit of everything, but I'll clarify. What was difficult for the team previously was building for the long term. First, because F1 budgets were obviously fluctuating. They depended on who came in and put this or that investment. We can say it, the performance is quite proportional to the investment in F1. It's difficult for a team to say to itself, with a given budget for three years "I will be in this position in three years" if, by the way, in year 2 or 3, someone came along and put in three times what you put. It broke this dynamic. Then, there was this lack of internal prospects on the Renault side. F1 was not set in stone for 3, 4, 5, 6 years. Today it's totally different. We already have a guarantee that Renault is involved in F1, I will say over 5 years, but in reality it is 10 years, because we are already thinking about the following regulations in a very active way. With the budgetary ceiling, we have a much more stable perspective of investments and resources, which allows us to say that finally over the 4-5 years, we know what we must address with resources which are the same for everyone. We know where we could extract competitive advantages, in particular because we are a complete factory team, in particular because we have 45 years of F1 behind us and we still have a lot of knowledge, that the we have the support of a strong industrial group with a lot of skills in what we call support functions. In this new context, we are able to raise the team's performance and structure it accordingly, which is why we need 4-5 years. It's normal. Then come the men, who are the main resource in F1. However, they are bound by contracts and non-competition clauses which range from 6 to 24 months. There are not resources everywhere. It's a game of musical chairs. It always takes time to put a structure in place. All stables have the same constraints. It is logical to say that it will take us 3-4 years to get back to the top of the podium.

Your speech resembles that of a team like Aston Martin, or Lawrence's team Stroll has been very active in the recruitment market. For your part, the departure of the former technical director in charge of engines, Rémi Taffin, has not even been made official. Who directs Viruses-Châtillon for example?

In Viry, we put a more traditional structure back in place with a strong design/engineering office, a strong project program, and strong validation tests. These three departments form a very classic structure, both in competition but also in the industry. Rémi's responsibility was very vast. It was divided into three. These three directors report to me directly and this structure works very well. She is leading the development of the new engine. We didn't make any waves because we're not used to making them at Renault. We do not publicize all our recruitments and personnel movements. We are moving forward with our own roadmap. On the Aston Martin side, there have also been some high-level profiles so it's making a bit of noise. Wasn't there also an effort on the part of the offloaded party to use the media to negotiate (referring to Red Bull with the upcoming departure of aerodynamic manager Dan Fallows, Editor's note) ? I do not know.

What about the new 2022 engine? Will it mark the technological breakthrough often mentioned by Cyril Abiteboul?

I'm not going to go into details. We have an engine that will change drastically compared to this year's, both in terms of technical definition but also in operating conditions. Why am I saying that ? Because this will have an impact on the car, the chassis, typically the sizing of the coolers and others. So this engine is going to be eminently different from the current engine, that's for sure.

Red welcomes the contribution withinAlpine of the competition director Davide Brivio, although announced to return in MotoGP / © DPPI

A word about your competition director, Davide Brivio, whose role and contribution it is difficult to perceive. Insistent noises announce his return to MotoGP. Is this a casting error?

The first thing I notice is that Davide is very missed on the MotoGP side. Everyone raves about him, both those who worked with him, but also his former adversaries. It is still a testimony to the value of the person. For me, he does a very good job, he contributes a lot to the management of the drivers, to the cohesion of the team on the track. He is focused on that. For me, there is no subject Davide Brivio. It meets expectations. Like all the team's managers, he will be evaluated on this year's achievements and results.

But is there a desire to continue together? Or will it depend on your end of season audit?

I will do an audit of the collective and individual performance of the team and will decide in my soul and conscience when the season is over. Because 1: I want us to hang on to P5 and the current organization, which has recorded 15 consecutive points finishes, is working well, so I'm not going to break that. 2: we are in full development of next year's car, so I'm not going to break that either. At the end of all this, of the current season and the development of the 2022 single-seater, I will decide what I want to evolve – I am careful to choose this term “evolve”, to seek superior performance. P5 is the goal this season, it's not what I want for next year. The organization is probably not able to reach above. Davide will be part of this reflection.

Alpine/Renault has been politically isolated since the loss of McLaren as a client team at the end of 2019. Is this a disadvantage? Would you like to have a satellite structure like other engine manufacturers?

It's a sort of natural consequence of what we said before. If you freeze the engine, it progresses less, so it is less competitive. We found ourselves without any customers. This is not necessarily where the attention was placed. I hope that we find a level that is consistent with our history. Renault is one of the two historic engine manufacturers of Formula 1 with Ferrari, without insulting Mercedes. We have always been there for 45 years. And personally, as an engine manufacturer, I want us to find a competitive engine. This cannot be decreed. You have to work. That takes time. We're going to put a lot of effort into it. In the era of the budget cap, I think it's an important competitive advantage to be a factory structure, to integrate a high-performance powertrain into a competitive chassis. It will no longer be a question of investments but of the way in which we make the technological amalgamation of the different components, the PU (power-unit, powertrain. Editor's note) and the chassis. I need this engine to meet expectations again in a chassis and to produce a very high level of performance. Is finding customers a need? No, it’s a “nice-to-have” (a bonus. Editor’s note). First of all, I want my performance to be up to par. And when we are solid, with an organization capable of absorbing customers, perhaps we will open the door again. Under these conditions, we can benefit from it. If we are poorly structured, it can become a drain. Because to solve other people's problems, you have to take resources from home. I want to start with ourselves.

Rossi believes thatAlpine must still take another step forward to claim a return to the forefront / © DPPI