Szafnauer signing key to reversing Alpine's plateauing F1 form, says CEO

Former Aston Martin F1 team boss Otmar Szafnauer's appointment and a return to a more traditional management model are key to making Alpine competitive under Formula One's new rules, chief executive Laurent Rossi said.

The Renault-owned manufacturer announced the signing of the Romanian-American as new team principal on Thursday, having had former Suzuki motor racing boss Davide Brivio and Marcin Budkowski sharing the role last year.

"I want to say that the old structure was not 'not working'," Rossi told Reuters and two other journalists in a select media round-table.

"We went through the season, we never made a fool of ourselves, it was just fine. 

"Now was it the right structure to move forward and take the team to the next level because the team has been plateauing and rather was in almost a negative slope."

Alpine, who competed as Renault until the end of 2020, returned to the top step of the podium with a win for Frenchman Esteban Ocon in Hungary but finished fifth in the standings last season for the third year in a row.

Their target is to fight for the championship within 100 races of the start of Formula One's new rules era, which begins with the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 20.

Szafnauer's appointment, which was announced alongside that of former Peugeot Sport head and FIA deputy secretary general of sport Bruno Famin as head of Alpine's power unit operations, follows a review of the team's old structure Rossi began in November last year.

Budkowski left Alpine in January following the review and Brivio has been moved on to a broader talent development role, the team said.  

Rossi said Szafnauer, a long-time F1 insider, who previously worked with Honda before moving to Force India which became Aston Martin