The Alpine F1 team has been put on notice, in no uncertain terms, by CEO Laurent Rossi who denounced the team's underwhelming results, poor execution and "amateurish" approach to its affairs.
Rossi expressed his harsh criticism of the Enstone squad on the eve of Sunday's Miami Grand Prix, raising the stakes and turning the pressure on the team.
Hopefully, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, who both made the top-10 shootout in qualifying and who will start their race from P6 and P8 respectively, will deliver a much need solid bag of points to the team in Florida.
Year-to-date, Alpine has only scored eight points in F1's Constructors championship after four races, thanks to Gasly and Ocon's top ten finishes in Bahrain and in Jeddah.
Alpine's self-proclaimed ambition ahead of the 2023 season was to finish fourth in the standings but closer in terms of both points and performance to F1's front-runners.
Based on its results so far, realizing that goal has already become a tall order for a team currently outperformed and outscored by both Aston Martin and McLaren.
And Rossi is clearly enraged by Alpine's failure to live up to its own expectations.
"This year we have started with a performance deficit, on one hand, and also an execution deficit. That’s a lot – and it shows," Rossi said in an interview with French broadcaster Canal+.
"Because we are in a position that is not at all worthy of the resources invested, and we are far – very far – from the final objective of the year.
"What I see is, there’s certainly a lack of performance, as I say, a lack of rigour in the execution, but also potentially a frame of mind that is not at the level of what had been accomplished by this same team in the past."
The optics of Alpine's shortfall were certainly made worse by the team's double crash and DNF in Melbourne, but also by its pointless weekend in Baku where a significant upgrade package held the promise of a step up in performance.
"I didn’t like the first grand prix because there was a lot of – I’m sorry to say this – but dilettantism [amateurism] that led to a result that was not the right one, that was mediocre, bad," added Rossi in reference to the team's comedy of errors that led to Ocon collection three penalty points.
"Then, the last race in Baku looked an awful lot like the one in Bahrain. And that is not acceptable.
"The right to make mistakes, it is a basic principle. Mistakes are what we learn from," Rossi noted.
"However, when you make the same mistakes twice, it means you haven’t learned and that you aren’t taking responsibility. And that, that is not acceptable."
Rossi's public criticism can be demoralizing for team members and could potentially harm the team's reputation in the eyes of sponsors and fans.
But if the issues raised by the Alpine boss are not addressed promptly, the team may continue to underperform, and permanently lose its footing.
Therefore, it is crucial for the French outfit to heed Rossi's warning and take immediate corrective measures to improve its performance, starting with Sunday's Miami Grand Prix.
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