Alpine F1 CEO Rossi “proud” of Szafnauer signing

Although Szafnauer has endured some difficult weeks, after finding himself at the centre of F1’s driver market silly season when Alpine lost Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin and Oscar Piastri to McLaren, Rossi has nothing but praise for him.

Rossi says that despite what happened on the driver front, with the team still upset about a lack of loyalty shown from Piastri, he is adamant Szafnauer is delivering in helping drive Alpine’s competitiveness forwards since he took over the reigns in March.

And while some have suggested there is a blurred management structure at Alpine which is not helping matters, Rossi says things are absolutely crystal clear internally now that things have settled down in the squad.

“Otmar is the boss, and that’s always been the case since he arrived,” explained Rossi.

“We had a bit of a transition period for me to handover a couple of matters, but Otmar is, by the way, one of the hires I’m most proud of.

“He’s delivering every day since he arrived, and is the boss. On topics like [drivers] we stay close, so we knew all of the developments.

“We would agree sometimes on maximums, limits, boundaries, because, of course, we need to be aligned, and I need to know [what is happening]. But there was no real disconnection between us.”

While Rossi has not been as much in the public eye this year as before, he says that is a consequence of him choosing to slot Szafnauer in to the team as its boss.

Previously, the team had a management structure with three chiefs – Rossi, former executive director Marcin Budkowski and racing director Davide Brivio.

Over the winter, Budkowski left the squad and Brivio moved into a new role overseeing young drivers and other competitive projects for Alpine.

With Szafnauer in place, Rossi says it was always his intention to step back – and he wants to further get less involved in F1 from now on.

“Last year I was very involved in the team, mostly because there was no team principal,” he said.

“There was a need for management to be there, and I needed to understand how the team operates before I made the changes I want to make, which I did.

“I believe they’re working: and on track we deliver, which is the most important by the way in the sport. So then I need to take a distance.

“This year, for instance, in the first half of the season, I was here roughly two grands prix out of three,…