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If the race pace simulations or even the very basic eye test is to be believed, Alpine are going to start the 2024 F1 season as a backmarker. A works team that manufactures its power unit will be at the back of the grid this season and will be hoping to reach a semblance of respectability.
All of this, however, comes as a great shock if we look at where Alpine were just 12 months ago. The team was considered the fourth best on the grid and aimed to get closer to the front. Team principal Otmar Szafneur had recruited quite a few key personnel who were going to join the team in due time and help bring the project forward.
Fast forward 12 months, and the team has fired Otmar Szafneur. Long-time loyalist Alain Permaine was let go for unexplained reasons, only to be instantly picked up by Red Bull junior team V-Ca-RB.
Now, there's nothing to boast about at Alpine, and there is even speculation that the team could be up for sale. Whether that is the case or not, one thing is clear, if there is a prospective team looking at F1 and trying to find out how not to run a team, they need to look at the blueprint of decisions taken by the French squad over the years and not repeat them.
#1 Chronic underinvestment
There's no team in F1 that has succeeded by investing less. Of course, teams have failed despite investing more, but there's no team that's spending less than the big guys and still winning titles.
The reason behind that is the fact that every team in Formula 1 is efficient. There's no team in the sport that doesn't know the value of a penny. While you can try to run an operation by being efficient, it could yield a strong midfield result, but it won't take you further.
This has been Alpine's problem since day 1. There is this constant talk of the team being efficient, but unfortunately, that's set the ceiling of the team at P4 in the championship, a feat it has achieved twice before crumbling down the order.
#2 Political turmoil
Laurent Rossi was a man who is often labeled as someone who was highly political in his operation. This was evident in the manner in which he blasted Otmar Szafneur last season after taking all the credit for the team's success in 2022. This has been evident in the way the top management has been such a revolving door with no fixed direction or thought process from the outfit.
#3 Alpine's Lack of self-awareness
Arguably one of the biggest issues with an outfit like Alpine is that the lofty aspirations don't in any way match the ground reality. The team has done absolutely nothing in its current guise to come out and claim that it wants to be the 'French Ferrari'. Yet this is what Luca de Meo (Renault CEO) claims when he sits in front of the media.
The actions and the intent are just not in symmetry with each other, and as a result, nothing adds up about the French operation.
#4 Zero learning from peers
If there is anyone who has followed F1 in the last two decades, there is one thing that has stood out more than anything else if one wants to win. That is the ability to have a stable upper management that guides the direction that the outfit will take. The only two squads that have won titles in the sport since 2010 are Mercedes and Red Bull.
Both have the same man leading the team when it was dominating and when things went wrong. Alpine, on the other hand, have seen as many as four different team principals in less than 10 years.
When such a thing happens, it makes you wonder if there is any level of learning that the brand has done during its time in F1. Looking at the actions, it's hard to say that there has been any learning or understanding whatsoever.
#5 No proper long-term planning or decision-making
There is a parallel universe in which an Alpine could be driven by a driver lineup of Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri, a world champion and a world champion in waiting. But the team currently fields an all-French lineup of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. While the current lineup is surely not a bad one by any means, it could have been much better.
The unfortunate nature has been the lack of foresight or pinpointing a driver around which the team could be built. On the other hand, there is no long-term decision-making in play either. Getting rid of Otmar Szafneur last season was nothing more than an impulsive decision.
What exemplifies that fact is how Alpine replaced Otmar with Bruno Famin, the man who led Renault's power unit program, which has been an utter failure in the turbo hybrid era.
In all of this, there's one thing that's quite clear: there's no vision, no leadership, just a few interventions where the man from the boardroom shouts orders. When this is the approach, it makes it hard for any team to excel in any field, let alone F1.
For any prospect who is coming to F1 and wants to be successful, Alpine is the perfect case study of what not to do in the sport.
