After this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, BWT Alpine F1 Team has confirmed the departure of team principal Otmar Szafnauer and several other senior personnel. This comes a week after after the announcent that Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi also stepped down from his role to take on special projects within the broader Renault Group.
Alongside Szafnauer, sporting director Alan Permane, who had been with the team for an impressive 34 years, will also be leaving. Additionally, chief technical officer Pat Fry has already left Alpine to join Williams Racing on the 1st November.
Szafnauer became the team principal in 2022 after leaving Aston Martin Armaco Cognizant F1 Team, and he expressed his desire to stay with the team as recently as the Hungarian Grand Prix held last weekend. However, circumstances have led to his departure. To fill the void left by Szafnauer, Bruno Famin, who was appointed VP of Alpine Motorsports two weeks ago, will take over as the interim team principal.
An official statement from the team read:
“Otmar will continue his duties as normal for this weekend’s race in Belgium, before leaving the team ahead of the summer break. The team would like to thank Otmar for his hard work over the past 18 months and for leading the team in achieving fourth place in the 2022 Constructors’ Championship. The team wishes him the best for the future.
“The team can also confirm it will part ways with Sporting Director Alan Permane by mutual agreement. Alan will also continue his role this weekend in Belgium before departing ahead of the summer break. After 34 distinguished years at Enstone, the team extends its thanks to Alan and wishes him the best in his future endeavours.
“The team also announces that Pat Fry will leave the team to continue his career in Formula 1 elsewhere.”
