Alpine to sport unique livery for 2022 F1 season openers

Alpine is set to sport an all-pink livery during the first two rounds of the 2022 F1 season, following the arrival of Austrian water company BWT as title sponsor. After an absence of more than a year, BWT’s signature pink livery once again returns to F1 in the 2022 season opener in Bahrain.

Speaking to the media during Alpine’s launch event, BWT’s CEO Andreas Weissenbacher revealed their reasoning behind the decision, saying:

“Pink stands for a big vision to make the world every day a bit better. It stands for sustainability, it stands for our slogan, for UN planet blue. It is much more than a colour.”

He further went on to say:

“If a company like ours, and we are all together in a happy momentum, we are living in a nice place here on our globe, and as long as we do not see another realistic opportunity to fly to another planet where we have a similar good life like we have here, we have to take care of this planet.”

BWT says that the new color is part of its 'Change the world, sip by sip' mission, which aims to prevent the usage of single-use plastic. Regardless of the marketing jargon that is eerily similar to Phillip Morris’s Mission Winnow initiative, the new livery will help the Austrian company with brand exposure.

The company has been a constant presence in F1 starting in 2017 when they partnered with Force India, which later became Racing Point. When the team eventually morphed into Aston Martin, however, they were less inclined to run an all-pink livery stipulated by BWT.

While they still retained some form of partnership with Aston Martin last season, BWT’s presence on the car was extremely limited, leading to the company looking for other opportunities across the grid.

With former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer leaving the squad during the winter to join Alpine, the Austrian company, which has a strong relationship with the former, followed him to the French outfit.

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Former Aston Martin boss provides possible reasons for his sudden defection to Alpine

After more than a decade heading the Force India/Aston Martin team, former team principal Otmar Szafnauer surprised many in the F1 community earlier this year when he announced his departure from the team. Amid speculations about his future within the sport, Alpine announced at the start of this month that Szafnauer would be taking over as team principal in 2022.

The sudden move was unexpected, considering Szafnauer’s history with the Alpine/Renault outfit as a fierce competitor and rival. Speaking during Alpine’s 2022 car launch, the 57-year-old offered some insights into what might have led him to switch teams, saying:

“I look forward helping them beat not just the Aston Martin’s of this world, but everyone else on track. I’ll try to bring my style of leadership and collaboration and trustfulness within the organization.”

Szafnauer is often acknowledged as one of the driving forces behind Force India’s phenomenal success. Szafnauer has developed an impressive reputation, with the team managing to outrace teams with budgets up to three times as large as its own by being efficient.

Following the team’s takeover by a consortium led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, however, Szafnauer was under increasing pressure to extract performance from the team, while being given little free reign that he enjoyed under the previous ownership.

Last season, after their much-anticipated rebranding, the team slipped down the order to eventually finish seventh in the constructors' championship, as compared to fourth in 2020.