Alpine’s back and forth to assemble tired Fernando Alonso, which shocked all Formula 1 fans when Aston Martin announced him as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement. Despite the obvious difficulties that there were in the season, it was expected that the renewal of his contract would take place in the holidays, even in the halls of Enstone they were confident in his continuity.
Finally, that did not happen and the Spanish driver dug a hole in the French team, which even lost Oscar Piastri, who had been announced as Esteban Ocon’s new partner without being consulted and seemed to have plans with McLaren. In the midst of this storm, Otmar Szafnauer revealed details of the plans they had with Fernando Alonso and gave his forecast of what the 2023 season will be.
In statements rescued by “La Razón”, the head of Alpine stated that there were plans to renew it year after year, so the Asturian he could have had his seat until 2024 if the results were convincing. But as he is well acquainted with Aston Martin and aware of the signings made at Enstone to face the following season, he believes that the two-time world champion was wrong to choose Silverstone.
And it is not a novelty that the French single-seaters have a better performance than the English, who have twenty points in total and are in the penultimate position of the table. Therefore, Otmar Szafnauer believes that the path will continue in a similar way and that his team will continue to be above Aston Martin, he even has a future projection in which they could win races.
“I am confident that we can do better than the team that Fernando is going to in the time that he is going to be there. It has been a mistake and he will regret it.”
alpine chaos
Fernando Alonso it was just the opening piece that ultimately brought down the French house of cards, especially since there is no name that can replace it. Oscar Piastri refused to race with the team in 2023 and it is believed that the deal with McLaren would give him a seat in Formula 1, leading to the departure of Daniel Ricciardo.
In fact, the Australian with a Red Bull past is one of the team’s best options, as he can’t count on Guanyu Zhou either. The Chinese completely separated from Alpine last year, when his contract expired, and he has been happy not to have renewed and to have joined Alfa Romeo, where at least he had the opportunity to have a seat.