Alpine snowboarding workforce principal Otmar Szafnauer stated there was nothing private between his workforce and rivals Aston Martin and McLaren, who alienated their drivers final 12 months.
Fernando Alonso stunned Alpine by signing a cope with Aston Martin in the beginning of the summer season break final 12 months. When Alpine moved to advertise alternative driver Oscar Piastri, they found he had been kidnapped by McLaren.
The dispute over the latter was notably painful for Alpine, as they introduced Piastri as their new driver, however solely to disclaim that he would race for them. System 1’s Contract Recognition Board finally determined in McLaren’s favour, leaving Alpine to signal with Pierre Gasly to interchange Alonso.
However when requested if he felt any private motivation to beat the 2 groups that drove their drivers away from him final 12 months, Szafnauer stated: “No, I need to beat all of them.”
“What I need to do is give attention to the issues we are able to management,” he advised the media, together with RaceFans, on the launch of the Alpine A523 yesterday. “What we’re controlling is the event of our automotive, each the drivetrain and the aerodynamic growth.
“Let’s do our greatest and see what occurs. However I do not suppose we’re targeted on beating one or two groups. We’ve to attempt to beat all of them.”
Alonso appeared to have slapped his outdated workforce when he stated earlier this week throughout Aston Martin’s launch that his new workforce wasn’t content material with lower-ranked ending positions. Szafnauer stated Alonso by no means questioned his two seasons with Alpine as he celebrated his fourth- and fifth-place titles.
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“No, he by no means introduced it up,” Szafnauer stated. “After we completed fourth, for those who look again, he was simply as blissful as anybody else who was a part of the workforce.
“It is not straightforward to do if you had been fifth final 12 months and your purpose is to maneuver as much as fourth place. We needed to beat McLaren. I went to Woking and also you undergo there they usually have enormous prize cubicles, so it is not straightforward to beat them.
Once you say, “Look, I need to be within the high 4, I need to be fourth, not fifth,” I believe you need to have fun these achievements. I do not suppose it is a disgrace to say ‘we succeeded and let’s have fun’.
“If we are able to get a lot nearer to 3rd place for us subsequent 12 months than this 12 months, I am going to have fun that too. If we’re nearer and the hole is not that huge, which means we’re making progress in direction of the place we need to go.”
Aston Martin closed the hole to Alpine on the finish of final season. However Szafnauer, who joined Alpine from Aston Martin on the finish of 2021, stated the true take a look at of his former workforce’s competitiveness would come subsequent 12 months.
“They’ve had some high-profile recruits they usually’re most likely bringing in some data from the groups they’ve come from,” Szafnauer stated. “However to me the true take a look at shouldn’t be in ’23, the true take a look at is in ’24. You must provide you with the concepts by yourself. You did not carry it from Pink Bull otherwise you introduced it from Mercedes.
“You must determine the concepts you set within the automotive after which the enhancements your self. And that is the true take a look at for me.”
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