Fernando Alonso catastrophe rages on as main culprit behind Alpine exit emerges

Enzo Fittipaldi reflects on first race win in Formula 2

Laurent Rossi was the Alpine staff member responsible for driving Fernando Alonso away from the team and failing to keep hold of Oscar Piastri last year, according to reports. Alpine currently find themselves in a bit of a mid-season crisis after sacking a number of important figures, including Rossi and former team principal Otmar Szafnauer, over the last few weeks.

The wide-ranging departures at Alpine came just under a year after Alonso chose to leave the team in order to join Aston Martin, with the Spaniard later blaming Szafnauer for failing to wrap up contract negotiations in a timely manner. However, a report from Auto Motor und Sport now claims that Rossi was the main culprit behind Alonso’s exit and several other important decisions influencing the current state of play.

It is said that Rossi ‘drove away’ Alonso and Piastri with his ‘unfortunate’ negotiating tactics in spite of Alpine’s desire to keep both drivers, which led to millions of pounds being spent on releasing Pierre Gasly from his contract with AlphaTauri. Rossi was also blamed for tying Alpine down to an ‘unnecessary’ financial commitment two years ago by handing Esteban Ocon a long-term deal until the end of 2024.

The powers that be at Alpine then reportedly grew tired of waiting for the team to improve after watching the rapid progress made by McLaren and Aston Martin in recent months. The French outfit are currently 46 points behind fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship standings, while they have also been around three-tenths of a second per lap slower than the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari as of late.

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The report detailing Rossi’s instrumental role in shaping Alpine’s downfall comes after Alonso launched a scathing attack on Szafnauer, who the 42-year-old believes should bear most of the responsibility for the unfortunate developments at the team over the last 12 months.

Speaking to the BBC about the circumstances of his departure from Alpine, he said: “I don’t think I felt disrespected, but it is true it took longer than I thought when we started conversations. I think it was in Australia back in 2022 [when talks began] about renewing the contract.

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“It was just on a very slow pace and it was not from my side, I was just ready and happy. The 2022 car was a fast car so I was also happy with the performance and the possibilities into the future, so that slow pace of conversations and eventually not even putting on paper what we were writing and all these comments about the age and whatever, which they are still doing.

“It is the way they do things, or the way Otmar does things, because after this year he should be quiet, he should not talk at all. After the results of Aston Martin and the results he’s achieving, he’s still talking and still proud of the decision, which is incredible, amazing.”

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