Ricciardo should have been the final piece of the puzzle heading into 2019, with Renault now in possession of a good car and the right driver to wrestle it to the front of the grid. But what followed was a season very similar to the one Alpine endured in 2023: battling for scraps while occasionally making a surprise visit to the podium due to herculean efforts by its drivers.
Ultimately, the team finished a respectable fifth in the constructors’ standings, followed by the same result in 2020, before losing Ricciardo at the end of the season to McLaren – effectively lighting the fuse for the first Renault reset.
Following Ricciardo’s exit, Abiteboul was removed from his team principal position ahead of the Alpine rebrand in January 2021. The team since then has essentially been run much like an F1 car itself: if it’s not helping, get rid of it.
Alpine sported a ‘no team boss structure’ for 2021 – former Suzuki MotoGP boss Davide Brivio was brought in as a racing director, executive director Marcin Budkowski oversaw technical matters and Rossi came in as CEO. Fernando Alonso made an F1 comeback to replace Ricciardo.
The team finished a distant fifth that season, prompting yet more managerial movement in January 2022. Budkowski was ejected, as well as non-executive director Alain Prost.
Ricciardo’s Renault stint was limited to two seasons
Alpine then decided it need to return to a classic team boss leadership structure, and so turned to the experienced Otmar Szafnauer – the former Force India/Racing Point boss.
Alongside the addition of Szafnauer, these changes did inspire some performance. It scored points in every race but one heading into the ’22 summer break – and then chaos ensued.
In one quick swoop, Alpine lost its present and its future – Alonso, who had been angling for a longer contract than the one-year deal offered at Enstone, announced he was departing for Aston Martin in 2023.
Its star junior Oscar Piastri, whom the team had announced would replace Alonso, then refuted Alpine’s claim he was stepping into its race team – eventually moving to McLaren and at the time of publication leads the 2025 drivers’ standings.
Preparing Piastri for an F1 seat — including this 2021 test — cost $5m, claimed Alpine
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Following the disaster of letting not one but two star talents slip through its fingers, the case for Rossi and Szafneaur’s departure probably could have been made there and then, but finishing fourth in the constructors’ standings in 2022 seemed to be enough to save them – at least until a slow start to ’23. Rossi was quickly moved aside, and three senior race team members – team principal Szafnauer, sporting director Alan Permane and chief technical officer Pat Fry – left at Belgian GP in July. Alpine’s overall motor sport boss Bruno Famin took the F1 team principal reigns.
Davide Brivio was the next to go, a figure who had been absolutely key to Suzuki’s 2020 MotoGP championship victory. However, things didn’t work out at Alpine.
Then was the turn of technical minds Matt Harman (technical director) and Dirk de Beer (head of aerodynamics) just after the season’s opening round in Bahrain in the 2024 Formula 1 season, after dismal early-season results.
As a result of the poor start, next on the chopping block was Bruno Famin, who stepped back as team principal to make way for Oliver Oakes in the summer of 2024. Oakes was recruited by Flavio Briatore, the former Enstone boss who had returned in an ‘advisor’ position – having previously left the team in disgrace.
Famin remains within the Renault Group overseeing its other motor sport projects such as the World Endurance Championship.
Esteban Ocon also left Alpine in acrimony, moving to Haas for 2025. Despite being with the Alpine squad since 2020, the team dropped him one race early to make way for rookie Jack Doohan at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was an ugly ending to a partnership that saw the Frenchman take his first and only grand prix victory, as well as provide Alpine with a further three podium results over the seasons.
Even before the 2025 season began, there then were rumours that Jack Doohan would be replaced by new driver signing Franco Colapinto, who brought sizeable sponsorship from South America and appeared to be the kind of confident, brash driver Briatore admires.
That driver switch was eventually confirmed just after the Miami GP, but was preceded by the shock resignation of team boss Oakes. It’s thought the Brit was unhappy with Briatore calling the shots, the Colapinto instalment being the final straw. Oakes lasted ten months.
Flavio Briatore is the executive advisor and now temporary team principal at Alpine
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Briatore will now continue as executive advisor and take on any team principal duties, despite previously being banned for life from the sport. His responsibility for ‘crash gate’ at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix should have seen him permanently banished from F1, yet his punishment was overturned by a French court in 2010.
David Sanchez is currently in place as Alpine’s executive technical director, Eric Meigan is the technical director of their power unit and Dave Greenwood remains as racing director.