Otmar Szafnauer on Luca de Meo: "I only spoke to him three times"

"You won't get a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.", Otmar Szafnauer joked after his ouster fromAlpine. Poached from home Aston Martin On February 17, 2022, he will have only experienced 38 Grand Prix with the team ofenstone. Brunon Famin, his replacement, had a one-year interim, logically shorter, but still longer than Oliver Oakes' ten months on the pit wall.

The ejection seat of the director's positionAlpine never gave enough time to a single decision-maker. Between July 2023 and May 2025, the team had more different team principals than regular drivers. A lack of stability that seriously hampered the team's development in its quest for results in Formula 1.

The 60-year-old Romanian-American was not helped by Luca de Meo, then head of the group. Renault, and its demands for short-term results. "I only spoke to him three times, he confides in an interview with The Race. At one point he was very enthusiastic about luring me away from Aston Martin. He told me he needed someone with F1 experience. He seemed keen to do things right.

Szafnauer joined Force India in 2009, when the team was sitting second to last in the standings with no points scored at the end of the previous season. He contributed to the team's gradual comeback, climbing the standings each year: 7th in 2010, 6th in 2011, 2012 and 2013, 5th in 2015 and 4th in 2016 and 2017.

Bought by Lawrence Stroll and renamed Racing Point in 2018, the team even achieved its first victory with the comeback of Sergio Pérez at the Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020. A performance confirmed once the move to the Aston Martin fold with a podium of Sebastian Vettel in 2021 in Baku (then a second one withdrawn in Hungary) and nine of Fernando Alonso in 2023.

Szafnauer will not have benefited from the same deadline at Alpine, especially because of Luca de Meo's expectations. "The last time I spoke to him was in Montreal in 2023 [four rounds before his dismissal in Belgium, Editor's note.] I explained to him that it would take time to implement a paradigm shift within the team. I told him how long it would take, to which he replied, 'I don't have that time. It has to happen faster.'

“Bad decisions by management always cause bad results on the track.”

Among all the recruitments made by Szafnauer at Alpine, a large majority only stayed a few months within the team before moving elsewhere. "There is an excellent aerodynamicist from Red Bull, I think he's the only one still there, does he retrace. My other recruits ultimately didn't come or left after only a few weeks. One of them was leading Apple's simulation program in Cupertino, among the best simulation engineers in the world."

A grudge relieved by the difficulties encountered by Alpine since his departure, which Szafnauer would almost be happy about. "I'm not pointing out anything that people can't see for themselves.", the Romanian-American exonerates himself. You only have to look at the constructors' standings: they're last this year. It just shows that bad decisions by the management always cause bad results on the track."

The recent surprise resignation of the Italian from his post as CEO of the Renault group surprised Otmar Szafnauer. The manufacturer's sales "were doing well" and the CEO would have earlier negotiated a "four-year contract extension" with the diamond brand. The future of Renault and Alpine in F1 will remain according to him "in the hands of the new one. When Carlos Ghosn was there, he made the decisions for F1. Maybe [Flavio] Briatore is right and it won't change anything at all, I don't know."

Amid rumors of a sale ofAlpine In view of his recent performances, the Romanian-American can only refer to the brand's philosophy and the team's financial results: "I think thatAlpine will only sell electric cars in the near future. So there is not a big correlation between the track and production vehicles, he comments. Maybe they'll say, 'We bought this team for next to nothing and it's now worth a billion and a half. Why not sell?'"

Coming from a former team manager claiming to be supported by a manufacturer for a new team project, the message seems almost inciting.

ALSO READ > Rossi, Szafnauer, Famin, Oakes… Anatomy of a fall at Alpine