Fernando Alonso finds no support for his 4th place comments from Alpine boss: "He was as happy as everybody else"

Alpine's principal responded to Fernando Alonso's comments about teams being 'satisfied' with where they finished in the standings. The reaction came during the launch of Alpine's 2023 challenger.

The team's boss Otmar Szafnauer stated that Alonso was as happy as everyone else in Alpine when they finished fourth the previous season (as PlanetF1.com quoted):

"I think when we did finish fourth, if you look back, he was as happy as everybody else who was part of the team."

Although Alpine had been mostly competitive in the 2022 season, Fernando Alonso faced a lot of engine issues. While they defeated McLaren to finish fourth in the constructor's championship, Alonso made a surprising move and left the team. He went to replace Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin even though they finished much lower than Alpine.

It is expected that the Spaniard's experience will help the team grow better and that will, in turn, help them achieve what they aim for. Fernando Alonso's earlier comment also clarified the goals for the team, which are to win races.

"They finished fourth and they were happy with fourth. They finished fifth and they were happy with fifth. If we were seventh, it was a celebration. Here there are no celebrations until we win and this is very appealing."

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Will Alpine finish the same without Fernando Alonso?

Alpine was rebranded from Renault after the 2020 season, and their first season saw them finishing 5th in the constructor's standings.

However, the 2022 season was much better for them as they managed to beat McLaren to top the midfielders. Though this is believed to have happened because of the huge gap there was between Daniel Ricciardo's and Lando Norris' points.

Szafnauer stated that it was a tough job to beat McLaren in 2022:

"When the year before you’re fifth and your ambition is to move up to fourth, it’s not easy to do. We had to beat McLaren. I’ve been to Woking and you walk by and they have a massive trophy cabinet, so they’re not easy to beat."

Though Fernando Alonso is an excellent driver, he had less points than Esteban Ocon at the end of the season. This could be because of the reliability issues he faced while he was competitive.

However, it can be said that he was not solely responsible for the team's 4th-place finish. Since he has been replaced with Pierre Gasly for the upcoming season, him and Ocon are expected to perform better than last year with the new car and step into the top three constructors.