"Frustratingly not reflective of reality": F1 Pundit on Alpine CEO sticking to finishing P4 in the championship

F1 pundit Scott Mitchell-Malm claims Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi's directive of not changing the team's goals in 2023 is 'not reflective of reality'. The French team are currently sixth in the constructors' standings, sharing 14 points with McLaren.

The team's goal for the new season is to finish a minimum of fourth place, a goal that now looks a little difficult. However, team CEO Rossi believes his squad must not change their targets and should strive to achieve them regardless of their current progress. Rossi claims that changing the targets will make life easier for his team, making them complacent.

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Mitchell-Malm said about the Alpine CEO's comments:

"That's just so frustratingly not reflective of reality. The situation now is, yes, you cannot change the fact that you set one target at the start of the year."

He added:

"You will not be judged on the fact that if you change your target and come fifth, people aren't going to suddenly go like "oh what a great season that was for Alpine, they really hit their target", no. It's on record that you wanted to finish fourth. It will still be there as a reflection of failure for the team."

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Alpine CEO's criticism of Otmar Szafnauer off the mark, claims F1 pundit

F1 pundit Valentin Khorounzhiy recently opined that Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi's criticism of team principal Otmar Szafnauer is unjustified.

According to Khorounzhiy, Rossi shouldn't have high expectations for Szafnauer to rapidly transform the team and propel them up the grid. He added that Szafnauer took on the role as the team boss of the French outfit just a year ago.

The F1 pundit pointed out that while Rossi initially praised Szafnauer's move to Alpine, he quickly shifted to criticizing him when the team's performance declined in 2023.

On The Race F1 podcast, Khorounzhiy said:

"He hired Otmar last year, talked him up as one of the best decisions he ever made. Few months later, that same team principal is almost thrown under the bus and basically said, 'You need to sort this out.' It feels a little bit like Rossi wanting to take responsibility for the good things and then shift the responsibility for the bad things."

With the chinks within the French team's armor now visible to the rest of the grid, it will be interesting to see where they finish at the end of the year.