The A523 was inconsistent, usually suffering at high-speed and low-downforce tracks. There were good moments, notably in Monaco, where Esteban Ocon started and finished third, while team newcomer Pierre Gasly matched that result in the high attrition Zandvoort race.
However, there were mediocre weekends that saw the cars running outside the top 10, and there were also too many retirements, with contact often playing a role – most unfortunately in Australia, where Gasly and Ocon tangled. Meanwhile, the overall points total fell from 173 to 120.
It was also a year of turmoil off the track. Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi was shuffled sideways, and then over the Spa weekend, it was revealed that team principal Otmar Szafnauer and veteran sporting director Alan Permane had both been ousted. Co-incidentally, at the same time chief technical officer Pat Fry jumped ship to join Williams.
All of that resulted in a reshuffle of responsibilities within the race team, while erstwhile Viry power unit boss Bruno Famin was named interim team principal, a role that now appears to have become more permanent.
On the positive side, in the wake of the changes, Renault CEO Luca de Meo visited Enstone and insisted in a speech to staff that he was fully committed to the Alpine project.
Meanwhile, much-needed factory upgrades were underway both there and at Viry. Things appeared to be gelling at the end of the season.
“The truth is that we’re not where we wanted to be, for sure,” says Famin. “That’s very clear. But I think with the changes we made mid-season we untapped some potential in the people, I think people are much freer to propose things, to improve.
“I think that’s especially true on the track side, where immediately I saw a change in the mindset. We promoted for example, [team manager] Rob Cherry and [chief mechanic] Jason Milligan, they are doing a very good job in proposing improvements, in making sure that their guys also propose things.
“I think all this potential was a bit capped until the end of July, and I’m very happy with that. It’s true for the garage, it’s true also for the track engineering, it’s true for the strategy, and we are daring things we were not daring before.
“I’m very happy with that mindset. Of course, the car is still not the one we would like. But we scored more points per race in the second half of the season than in the first one, but we need to keep pushing to develop this momentum.”
Famin’s focus on people…
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