Szafnauer jokes Vettel crash was revenge for him leaving

Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer has jokingly suggested Sebastian Vettel’s crash during the Australian Grand Prix was revenge for the him swapping teams.

Szafnauer spent 12 years at the Aston Martin team through its various iterations but left at the end of last year, Vettel’s first with the team, to take up the reins at Alpine.

Even in the early stages of the 2022 campaign, it seems to have been a smart decision as Aston Martin are the sole team not to have registered a point while Alpine look to be capable of consistently challenging for a strong haul of points.

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Luck was not on their side during the Australian Grand Prix and it was a particularly frustrating weekend for Fernando Alonso.

Having looked in the running for pole position before crashing in qualifying, the Spaniard’s weekend was made worse on the Sunday when his strategy to start on the hard tyre came undone by the Safety Car.

When Vettel crashed on the 23rd lap of the race, it allowed the drivers on the medium tyre to quickly swap thus causing Alonso to lose any advantage he might have hoped to gain.

Driver debrief in Melbourne. We move on to Imola.#AusGP pic.twitter.com/fjEqvWICPH

— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) April 10, 2022

Szafnauer joked that the poor timing of Vettel’s crash was revenge for him swapping sides.

“They probably did it because I’m here now,” he said with a smile as reported by motorsport.com.

The 57-year-old also said the team’s