MADRID, 11 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish driver of Alpine, Fernando Alonso, assured that his team “should be able to fight for a championship” in Formula 1 in a period “in the short or medium term” after the modifications of this season, in addition to being very excited about the signing of Otmar Szafnauer as the new director of the team.
The Asturian, who was “delighted” to welcome Szafnauer, is aware of the changes that Alpine has made to be among the best this year. During the winter break, in addition to a new director, the team’s CEO, Laurent Rossi, decided to promote Pat Fry and Matt Harman as technical directors.
In Bahrain, Alonso commented on Szafnauer’s impact on team motivation, after the new manager highlighted Alpine’s “great potential”. “Yes, I spoke with him at the factory, on the day of the simulator that I had before coming here, and yes, he is interested in that. And he is working hard,” he told ‘formula1.com’.
“He also has a lot of experience and yes, he is motivating us all a lot, so he is a great addition to the team. We have high hopes that he will help us grow quickly and we are delighted to have him with us.”
“We think we may have a chance, maybe with the new set of measures that started this year, that in a short to medium term program Alpine should be able to contend for a championship. That’s why we’re here and that’s why we work so hard. hard”, acknowledged Alonso.
In this sense, he recalled that “there is the established budget limit, there are all these things in which Formula 1 entered”, and he thinks that “there is a possibility for everyone and that is why Alpine and Group Renault in general are here”, he insisted .
For his part, Szafnauer was equally complimentary of Alonso. Alpine’s new boss said on Friday: “[Es un] Two-time world champion, you know, he’s still as hungry as ever, he wants to do really well, he pushes the team, he’s a very competitive individual, so I look forward to working with him.”
And the Alpine team manager was also excited about the potential shown by his new team. “Yeah, great potential, like-minded people going in the same direction, wanting to do well. They have a great history, they’ve won before, good infrastructure, so I really look forward to working with all of them,” he concluded.