Alpine F1 face shocking internal divisions between English and French personnel - Reports

There have been recent reports of internal conflicts at Alpine, especially between its English and French team members. The team is split into two: the core power unit team working in Viry, France, and other operations in Enstone, England. However, the two sides of the camp are reportedly not on great terms.

According to Last Words on Sports and Motorsport-Total, Renault CEO Luca de Meo recently held a video conference where both English and French members of the team were present. He emphasized collaborative work as a team and not the location of operation, adding that different nationalities should not come in the way at any cost.

Last Words on Sports even mentioned that Alpine's English and French team members are so against each other that they even book separate hotels when going into a race weekend. In the paddock, they also sit on different tables and create groups.

Adding to this, the team has changed CEOs and fired Otmar Szafnauer from team principal duties. It thus shows how Alpine is not able to operate smoothly enough, at least when compared to other F1 teams. Furthermore, their car has retired quite a lot of times due to crashes and other reliability issues.

They are currently sixth in the constructors' championship and are miles behind teams like McLaren and Aston Martin, who have shown how a midfield team can get into podium places with the right direction and resources. Only time will tell whether Alpine will be able to bridge the gap between its headquarters in England and its power unit factory in France.

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F1 pundit confused by Alpine's decision to sack Otmar Szafnauer

Meanwhile, F1 pundit Peter Windsor is left confused by Alpine's sudden decision to free Otmar Szafnauer from team principal duties and from the team all together. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Windsor said:

"For me. it's quite surprising that they've got rid of Ottmar because he hasn't been there very long. As I said before, for me, he's always been quite well integrated with BWT and I would have thought that, you know, that would have been a factor, but it's obviously not."

He talked about Alpine's indecisive and messy approach, which reflected in them firing Szafnauer from their team, even though they planned to keep him for a good few years.

He said:

"You know, the new regime apparently said that he was going to stay on as a team principal and then two weeks later [they] changed their mind. So, it looks pretty...I don't know if 'not serious' is the right way to describe it, but it looks very complicated and messy, doesn't it?"

Otmar Szafnauer was removed from the French team after the 2023 F1 Belgian GP, at the start of which it was announced he would be leaving the team.