Otmar Szafnauer Could Leave Aston Martin To Become Alpine F1 Boss

Szafnauer could slot in a team principal role on top of Brivio and Budkowskior even make up for Brivio potentially leaving the team.

By Sahil Gupta

1 mins read

Published on December 31, 2021

Highlights

Brivio is unhappy at Alpine as he thought he was getting the top job
Szafnauer could either replace him or be slotted above him
Szafnauer has been under pressure since the Aston Martin rebranding

Otmar Szafnauer could be on his way out from Aston Martin after the hiring of Martin Whitmarsh as the CEO of Aston Martin Technologies. While Szafnauer remains the CEO and team principal of the Aston Martin F1 team, the combination of new pressure from Lawrence Stroll the owner of the F1 team, and the executive chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda along with the poor performance of the team in the year. This situation coincides with the fact that Alpine has turmoil at its own end with Davide Brivio being unhappy sharing responsibility of the team with Marcin Budkowski- Laurent Rossi, the CEO of Alpine is evaluating an alternative management structure for the team. Szafnauer could slot in a team principal role on top of Brivio and Budkowski or even make up for Brivio potentially leaving the team. Szafnauer has been under the pump because of Aston Martin's poor performance in 2021 and he now even has yet another boss on top of him. Laurent Rossi was installed as Alpine CEO after Cyril Abiteboul was fired "Szafnauer could take over the management of the French-British team as part of the vast restructuring plan being worked on by Laurent Rossi. Amongst the restructuring projects is the recruitment of Otmar Szafnauer, who is reportedly under pressure at Aston Martin," reported French magazine Auto Hebdo. Alpine needs to get its house in order as well if it wants to compete for the world title. It now has a settled driver line up but since the exit of Cyril Abiteboul, the team hasn't had a defacto team principal. Szafnauer could slot into that role and support Rossi in those efforts. Many had expected Szafnauer to get the boot in 2019 itself after Stroll acquired the erstwhile Force India team, however, the good performance in 2020 meant that there is more investment in the team with the arrival of 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. However, in the year Aston Martin has returned to F1, Aston Martin has been abysmal fighting for just P7 with the best finish being Vettel's P2 in Baku, just ahead of Alfa Romeo, Williams, and Haas.