F1 pundit questions the motivation behind Alpine CEO's  public thrashing of the team

F1 pundit Ted Kravitz has questioned the motivation behind Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi's public thrashing of the team. A piece of news that seems to have died down a bit caught the eye of everyone when the French squad's CEO, Laurent Rossi, gave a rather inflammatory interview on the team's performance.

Talking about the team to French publication Canal+, Rossi used words like "amateur" and "dilletants" to describe the team's start of the season. Ted Kravitz has questioned what the motivation behind such inflammatory comments from the Alpine CEO was.

Talking about this in his post-Miami Grand Prix notebook, Ted Kravitz questioned if this had to do with Alpine falling massively short of expectations at the start of the season or whether it was a pointed attack at Otmar Sazafneur as well.

He said:

“They scored points with both cars and while that makes for a positive sounding press release, I’m not sure it’s all positive here. In fact I need to read and understand the Laurent Rossi interview to Canal+ because apparently it was a real doozy where he criticised the team for not being quick enough and having a nightmare last time in Baku. It was better here but still they’re not that quick."

He added:

“If Alpine’s stated aim at the start of the season was to cement P4 in the Constructors’ and get closer to P3 then they are miles off. And Rossi is absolutely right that they need to get their act together and get quicker. Now there are signs they are doing that. Was Laurent Rossi’s ire sparked by Luca De Meo, the Renault boss? Was it having a go or a motivation at Otmar Szafnauer?"

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Otmar Szafneur replies to the Alpine CEO's comments

When questioned about his views on the whole situation, Otmar Szafneur said that all of this did not put any extra pressure on the team, which was already driven to perform well.

He told Motorsport.com:

“Reading something like that on paper puts no more pressure [on us]. Everyone wants to do well here. We're very well experienced, with technicians and engineers at the highest level, and we put pressure on ourselves. So, we just have to fix it.”

It remains to be seen if the team's results will determine Otmar's future, but it's hard to deny that these comments certainly show that the team is certainly under pressure to do a better job.