Perez: Alpine wrong not to give Szafnauer time to build team

Sergio Perez believes Alpine’s decision to part ways with team principal Otmar Szafnauer was wrong, insisting the American should have been given more time to to build up the Enstone squad.

Szafnauer was on the receiving end of a veritable implosion at Alpine right in the middle of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend when the manufacturer announced out of the blue that it had terminated the contracts of not only Szfanauer but also long-time sporting director Alan Permane.

Perez is naturally well acquainted with Szafnauer, having worked under the American’s orders for seven years at Force India and Racing Point, from 2014 to 2020. And the Mexican witnessed firsthand Szafnauer’s skills as a team leader and operator.

During his tenure with Force India/Racing Point, the former Alpine team boss played a significant role in the team's development and performance, helping them become a competitive force on the grid by, among other things, extracting the most from the team’s often limited budgets.

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"Yeah, I was quite surprised with it, given how short notice it was," Perez said, commenting last weekend in Spa on Szafnauer’s exit from Enstone.

"I think Otmar is great. For any person in that position, you've got to give them time.

"I think Otmar lacked time to really show his potential, which I know is huge because I've seen what he's done in other teams with very limited budgets, and with not-so-limited budgets as well."

Perez suggested that a team’s path to success cannot be fast tracked, and Alpine is no exception stressed the Red Bull driver.

"It is a shame that they let him move on. But whoever comes needs to have proper time, because all these things in Formula 1 take massive time,” he said.

For now, Alpine’s VP of Motorsports Bruno Famin has taken over on an interim basis Szafnauer’s responsibilities at the helm of the outfit, while the role of interim sporting director has been entrusted to Alpine Academy director Julian Rouse.

A close observer of the events that unfolded last weekend at Spa, Sky F1’s Martin Brundle admitted to being shocked by Alpine’s decision and the reckless timing of its announcements.

“I’m still taken aback by their wholesale forced departure of experienced F1 folk, and apparently with more to come,” he wrote in his post-Belgian GP column for Sky Sports.

“I must assume there are wise and knowledgeable people incoming that we’ve yet to hear about.

“Publicly binning team boss Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane mid-event while they still had a job to do on the pit wall was brutal even by F1’s less-than-impressive standards in this respect."

As for the identity of those who will eventually succeed Alpine’s ousted leaders, former Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto is often cited as one potential candidate to run the team’s affairs at Enstone.

“I’ve heard the rumour,” added Brundle. “This is a funny old place as you know, you can start a rumour just for fun and see how quickly it comes back to you as fact. But it’s not out of the question.

“Binotto has got a lot of experience, obviously in the Ferrari system, and knows about running a Formula 1 team.

“Obviously, it didn’t work out for him at Ferrari otherwise he’d still be there. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that was announced, no.”

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