BWT Alpine F1 confirms Otmar Szafnauer as team principal

As expected, BWT Alpine F1 has confirmed Otmar Szafnauer's move to Enstone where the former Aston Martin team boss has been appointed as the French outfit's new team principal.

Alpine has also announced a strengthening of its management structure under the leadership of the manufacturer's chief executive Laurent Rossi.

Rumors of Szafnauer's departure from Aston and move to Alpine emerged in the latter part of the 2021 season, but the hearsay was strongly denied at the time by the American.

However, in early January, the Silverstone-based outfit confirmed Szafnauer's departure, which only strengthened his prospects with Alpine.

Szafnauer was a long-standing member of Team Silverstone, having joined the outfit in 2009 under its Force India guise.

Szafnauer helped steer the team through some tumultuous times while also overseeing some impressive results. He was also instrumental in attracting four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel to Lawrence Stroll's outfit.

"I am thrilled to join BWT Alpine F1 Team and ready to get to work with everyone to achieve our challenge: bring the team to fight for the Championship within the next 100 races," commented Szanauer.

"My attention is focused on preparing for the start of the season in Bahrain. As one of the three car manufacturers involved in Formula 1, Alpine is fully armed to achieve its ambition, I can’t wait to start the journey!"

In addition to Szafnauer's appointment, Alpine has recruited former Peugeot Sport director and FIA deputy sport secretary-general Bruno Famin as its Executive Director at Viry-Châtillon where he will oversee the development of Alpien's F1 engines.

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Furthermore, Davide Brivio, who handled Alpine F1's operations on race weekends last year has been named Director of Racing Expansion Projects, a role that will see the Italian lead special projects in new motorsport categories as well as oversee talent identification and development in all categories.

"With Otmar and Bruno joining the team, we move to a new level for 2022," said Alpine CEO, Laurent Rosso.

"Otmar will bring his unique experience in motorsports and his uncompromising desire to win, while Bruno’s proven track record in building technologies that make a difference in competition and their subsequent transference to road cars is critical for our project as a sports team and as a brand.

"Over the past year I have seen Davide’s talent to identify the best in people, and to make them perform as well as they can. I am delighted to utilize this unique skill across all existing Alpine assets and new ones we are just starting to explore.

"Our band of racers is complete and ready to bring the team towards its ambitious objectives in 2022."

Alpine is set to unveil its 2022 car on Monday at 17:30 GMT.

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