Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has opened up on the long-term nature of his team’s Formula 1 mission.
Alpine has become a fixture in the midfield, collecting three podiums last year when it was known as Renault and another one in 2021 courtesy of Esteban Ocon’s shock win in Hungary.
An overhaul of technical regulations next year, combined with the budget cap, is expected to help level the playing field, but Rossi is still working towards a slightly longer timeline.
“We have a long-term project, the objective is to reach a level of competitiveness that places us on the podium as many times as possible in 2024,” he told the official Formula 1 website.
“From today in fifth, you can easily find a roadmap.
“It’s going to be every year a bit better. It’s a 100-race project, four years, four seasons.
“Every race we must make progress. It can be progress you see on the track or progress you don’t see, all the little details.
“The idea is to never stop – and be able to see we’re going in the right direction. Next year, it’ll be a coin tossing year.
“All we want is to make sure we have a satisfactory level of performance when we start, which doesn’t put us too far from the top.
“And then from there, we can carry on our climb to the summit.”
Renault CEO Luca de Meo affirmed the company’s long-term commitment to F1 success as part of a broader Alpine effort.
“We are planning to transform Alpine in the electric car sports arena,” said de Meo.
“We’re developing the product. The idea is to build around racing activities a business that would give perennity to the racing activity, so the business would then finance the operation. It will be a system that closes itself.
“Our performance here [in F1] will give substance to the whole story.”
Alpine holds fifth in the 2021 constructors’ championship, with Fernando Alonso contributing 58 points thus far and Ocon 46.