Alpine ‘struggle to have talent’ with long wait for signings

Renault CEO Luca de Meo says the length of contracts in place at Formula 1 teams means Alpine can “struggle to have talent” when their new signings take a long time to be available to them.

The Enstone team has been evolving after its rebrand from Renault, and personnel changes have come with it as Alpine look to climb the standings in Formula 1.

Executive director Marcin Budkowski departed the team at the end of the season, with longstanding rumours in the paddock claiming that Otmar Szafnauer will move across to Alpine to run their team, which have only been fuelled after he recently departed Aston Martin.

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De Meo said staff changes are commonplace in the sport, but the long contracts attached to senior staff members can be a barrier into hiring people from other teams quickly.

“A huit mètres de faire un podium…!”

Nos moments forts de 2021. Quels sont les vôtres ? pic.twitter.com/TuNfHPsaoa

— Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) January 27, 2022

A recent example of this is the transfer of Dan Fallows, Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics, transferring to Aston Martin. Although Fallows’ transfer was announced last summer, he will not move across to his new team until April.

With that, the Renault CEO acknowledged that it can be tough to create