"None of you are going to be safe if we continue to operate in this way": Why Alpine CEO lashed out at the team

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi's harsh comments on his F1 team were recently explained by F1 presenter Lawrence Barretto. It is clear that Alpine are not as good as they looked in 2022, as they made some mistakes during the start of the 2023 F1 season. Hence, Rossi is gradually getting impatient and has publicly criticized the French team.

Speaking on the Monaco GP preview video by F1, Barretto dissected the Alpine CEO's statements and explained how he is giving a warning to the senior management within the team to sort the performance out, or they could be removed from their posts.

The F1 presenter was also surprised by how Rossi openly stated certain issues with the team that are usually discussed behind closed doors. He said:

"He [Laurent Rossi] was angry, like, properly angry with the situation [with] how the team has performed this year. I think it was the silly little mistakes that the team was making consistently that really wound him up, I think and why he felt the need to come out and publicly list all of the issues.

"Normally, this kind of thing happens behind closed doors. You don't often see team's senior personnel come out and slay their team. But Laurent wanted to send a message out to the senior management within the team, across the engine division and the chassis division."

In the end, Lawrence Barretto concluded that it was essentially a warning for the senior management, including team principal Otmar Szafnauer, to bring the team back up and push forward.

"The bigger issue at the minute is the senior management. And I think he is trying to tell the team that none of you are going to be safe if we continue to operate in this way."

Alpine is currently sixth in the constructors' championship and is level on points with their main rival, McLaren.

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Alpine team boss believes there is still time to push the team forward

When Renault changed its branding to Alpine, CEO Laurent Rossi devised a 100-race plan. This plan claimed that the French outfit would become one of the top racing teams in F1 after 100 races, starting in 2021.

Though the team are nowhere near the top in the 2023 F1 season, team principal Otmar Szafnauer feels that there is still time for them to bounce back. Speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, he said:

"When the 100-race plan happened, we also put a plan together for infrastructure that we needed, skills that we need. We're out trying to get the infrastructure, and some of it that you need, you have to write the tools, the software tools, so you've got to get the people that have the right tools.

"We still have 75 races, I've stopped counting, but it is around 75, so if we have 25 a year, that's three years so it is like three-and-a-half years to go."

While Szafnauer feels there are still 75 races or roughly three years to improve, Laurent Rossi is getting impatient and wants Alpine to jump up the grid.