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Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi publicly thrashing the team during the 2023 F1 Miami GP has shown an eerie similarity to Ferrari's decade-long problem.
For context, during the last race in Miami, an interview by Rossi went viral where words like "dilettantes" and "amateur" were used to describe the team's start to the 2023 F1 season.
What was rather surprising was Rossi not holding back even in a later interview with F1.com where he doubled down on his views. Comments such as "the buck stops with Otmar" were used to directly/indirectly make it clear who Rossi felt was responsible for the stuttering start to the 2023 F1 season.
When you look at this, what seems obvious is arguably a far too similar approach that has led to Ferrari's struggles over the last decade.
The public flogging seems premature
Something that almost everyone questioned was the severity of the comments issued by Laurent Rossi after just five races into the season. First of all, it's not up for debate that the French squad has had a poor start to the season.
The aspirations that the team has set before every race weekend have not matched up with the results produced. To add to this, Aston Martin leapfrogging everyone means Alpine looks destined to finish P5 this season in the best-case scenario.
One of the major strengths of the team was its ability to stay consistent every weekend. This was what helped Alpine hold off McLaren last season. That is missing this season with Bahrain, Australia, and Baku proving to be a debacle.
Having said that, we're still just five races into the season. Some operational issues take time to sort out early in the season and Alpine could have been going through that phase.
The team has struggled, and things have not been as good as it hoped but after the result last year, it deserved some leeway when it comes to finding its feet.
Rossi's move reeks of politics
There is certainly an element of politics involved in Rossi's comments. There have been directed attacks on Otmar Szafneur, Alpine's team principal, and Laurent Rossi has done everything but put the blame entirely on him.
This could be a sign of Rossi facing pressure from the Luca de Meo, Renault CEO as the French squad sees Fernando Alonso, Alpine's former driver secure four podiums in five races.
This is, however, in sharp contrast to Rossi claiming last season that hiring Otmar was the best decision he'd made in his career. The team principal had helped guide a P4 finish in the championship and everything looked positive.
There's a level of politics involved here as Rossi might be trying to distance himself from the team's struggling start to the season and placing the blame entirely on the shoulders of Otmar.
Just like Ferrari, Alpine is suffering from unrealistic expectations
Aston Martin has made a mega jump up the pecking order and the team should be lauded for its efforts. However, this does not mean that Alpine has been sitting still.
The French team might not have met its pre-season expectations but it has shown that both Ferrari and Mercedes are not too far ahead. The gap to the benchmark setting Red Bull has shrunk, although it's not as significant as Alpine would have hoped.
Since last season, the conversation has been around the five-year/100 race plan as the timeline that the team was sticking to. For any midfield team to make the jump to the front, that timeline seems sensible enough.
Even this season, even though Alpine appears destined to drop one place in the championship, the gap to the front has decreased.
Just like Ferrari's age-old problem of setting ambitious targets leading to an atmosphere of fear, Alpine shifting goalposts in just the second year of the five-year plan is an unrealistic ask which is not going to yield anything positive in any which way.
Mattia Binotto to replace Otmar Szafneur? Seriously?
One of the rather surprising news that broke out during the 2023 F1 Miami GP weekend was Mattia Binotto being lined up to replace Otmar Szafneur at Alpine. The decision to go after Mattia Binotto does not appear to make much sense because of the kind of record he had at Ferrari.
The former Ferrari team principal's final season was marred with underachievement as Binotto's lack of leadership skills did get exposed. Binotto has made his name as one of the best technical minds in F1 but when it comes to stitching things together as an administrator, 2022 showed he lacks the x-factor.
Replacing Otmar, the man that has the experience of leading an F1 team before and doing it well with Binotto, someone who is more of a technical maestro is a bit of a surprise.
Rossi's comments should have surprised almost everyone in the paddock but it also laid bare one of the major issues with the team. The team suffers from far too much political baggage in the background.
This is a far cry from the frontrunners of the F1 grid right now and for Alpine to succeed, there needs to be a serious rethink on how it approaches the sport in the future.
