Alpine: Summer sackings unlocked potential

In the build-up to the final race before the summer break in Belgium, Alpine shocked all inside the sport when it announced the departures of Szafnauer as team principal, and team stalwart Permane as sporting director.

Just two weeks after being appointed to the role of vice president of Alpine Motorsports, Famin then took on his current position with the F1 team, one he is poised to continue into the new campaign.

Famin insisted at the time that Alpine “never lost confidence” in Szafnauer, it was more a case that the team was not 100 percent aligned under his leadership.

Famin feels the second half of last season underlined his point as up to and including the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Alpine scored 57 points in 12 races. After, it was 63 in 10.

Whilst insisting such a points total, and finishing sixth in the constructors’ championship is not where Alpine wanted to be, he claims that in removing Szafnauer and Permane, the feeling inside the team then changed.

“With the changes we made mid-season we untapped some potential in people,” said Famin.

“People are much freer to propose things, to improve things, especially true on the trackside where immediately I saw a change in the mindset.

“For example, we promoted Rob Cherry (from chief mechanic to race team manager) and Jason Milligan (to chief mechanic), and they are doing a very good job in proposing improvement, and in making sure their guys also propose things.

“I think all of this potential was a bit capped until the end of July, and I’m very happy with that.

“It’s true for the garage, true also for the track engineering, true for the strategy. We are daring to do things we were not daring to do before.

“We are delivering more hardware, using more potential of the car, extracting more performance from the car, and I’m very happy with that mindset.”

Famin maintains momentum was built over those final 10 races he now wants to see spill into the new season, with the hope further potential is freed.

“We have a lot of talent, and we need to help them to bring new ideas in developing the car but also in the way we work,” added Famin.

“The idea is to develop the potential of the full team, to develop the potential of the car, and to get a better car and better results.”

The results after the summer break last year were an improvement, but only marginally so, and for a works team, far below what its executives, spearheaded by CEO Luca di Meo, would have expected going into the season.

In 2022, Alpine scored 53 more points than it did last season and was fourth in the constructors’ standings.

But even its 173-point haul from that year would not have seen it improve on its sixth place in 2023, underlining the fact it has a long way to go to climb the ladder this year.

For Famin, whilst his words regarding an improved mindset have been spouted before by his predecessors, particularly regarding the integration between Enstone and Viry, there has often been little tangible evidence on track to support such claims.

The Frenchman, though, felt there was one particular instance during the Las Vegas GP that arguably proved Alpine is heading in the right direction, beyond the fourth-place finish from Esteban Ocon.

Famin claims that after the “very bad result” in the Italian Grand Prix, in which Pierre Gasly was 15th and Ocon retired, a deep analysis as to what went wrong took place, particularly leading up to Las Vegas and the low downforce nature of the track similar to Monza.

“Immediately, the team reacted, proposed some aero evolution, developed it, produced it and we had it on the car, just in time, and it worked,” said Famin.

“Before, it would have been ‘Okay, we are 17th (note: 15th) in Monza’. Instead, we had a very strong reaction, a very positive reaction, and it paid off.

“Much more (important) than the final result was the attitude, which was very good. It was an example of how things have already changed.

“Of course, it’s a small part of the project, a small part of what we have to do. Now we have to go everywhere in the company to develop that attitude, that way of working.”