Szafnauer sad for the 'good people' at Alpine he leaves behind

Former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has expressed sadness for his colleagues and the "good people" of Alpine he has left behind following his exit from the team.

Szafnauer's 18-month tenure with the French outfit came to an abrupt end after Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix in the wake of Alpine's dramatic announcement – at least in terms of its timing – last Friday at Spa.

Szafnauer's unceremonious departure was accompanied by the parting of the Enstone squad's long-standing sporting director Alan Permane and chief technical officer Pat Fry.

The decisions were the latest in a series of changes made by senior Alpine management and Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo during a turbulent period of transformation within the team.

As a result, the departure of Szafnauer, Permane, and Fry has effectively left Alpine without any senior F1 experience to guide them, given the wealth of combined knowledge and experience they brought to the team.

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As a man of prinicpal and integrity, Szafnauer had no intention of heading off into the sunset feeling sorry for himself. But the intensity of his feelings towards those with whom he had shared his time at Alpine - on the factory floor at Enstone and in the garage - was palpable.

"From everything the team said, they really enjoyed my 18 months with them," he told Speedcafe before departing the paddock at Spa on Sunday evening.

"They saw some of the leadership skills that I bring, they appreciated what I did, how I treat people, how I’m respectful to them, how I motivate them, all those things.

"That means a lot to me. To be a decent human being goes a long way in life.

"So I’m sad for the good people that work here. I’m not sad for myself, or for anybody else, except for all the good people that work for Alpine."

Szafnauer was understandably restrained in his comments given the non-disclosure agreement in place with Alpine, but there was no doubting his state-of-mind given how events had unfolded.

The former team principal appeared particularly moved by the fate bestowed upon Permane, a loyal Enstone resident for 34 years who had started his motorsport career with Benetton in 1989 as a test electronics engineer.

"Alan is one of the best in the pit lane, 34 years at the same place," said Szafnauer in a  heartfelt tribute to his now former colleague.

"He and I, on the pit wall, worked well together. He knows quite a bit, and it was only at the margin I could give him help every once in a while.

"That left me free to have a look around at what was happening, and I helped, but Alan’s a true professional who really, really knows Formula 1 well."

Always the racer, Szafnauer's parting words offered a summary of Alpine's solid race at Spa where Esteban Ocon bagged a P8 finish while Pierre Gasly concluded his day just outside the points.

"I look at it as every race, to see where we are in the pecking order, who we could have beaten, what we could have done a little better," he said.

"Esteban, to come from 15th up to eighth, and he was one second behind Norris. As he said, if he’d had one more lap, he would have beaten Norris, so I look at those things.

"They (McLaren) have got, in their engine power, three-quarters of a second more than we do around here, and three-quarters of a second is 30 seconds up the road.

"He (Ocon) qualified in a different spot, so those are the things I look at, and who else he could have beaten.

"And this year has been an up-and-down year. Two races ago, at Silverstone, it looked like the McLarens were going to run away with it, and now we’re one second behind in a race where, with one more lap, we would have beaten them.

"So those are the things I look at, still, because it’s a conditioned response with me. That’s what I do."

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