The Alpine F1 team recently made headlines after they sacked several important members of their side. The team not only axed CEO Laurent Rossi but also team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane. Since the French outfit sacked so many of their team members, there were speculations that they had some replacements in mind. One of them involved the signing of former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto. However, F1 expert Joe Saward has claimed in his blog that Alpine never contacted the Italian.
The 53-year-old is currently on gardening leave after he parted ways with Ferrari at the end of last season. This leave means that Binotto cannot sign for any other team until the beginning of next season unless he receives Ferrari’s permission.
Alpine yet to contact Mattia Binotto
According to Joe Saward, Alpine never contacted Mattia Binotto to join them as a replacement for Otmar Szafnauer. Saward claims in his blog that “It seems that Binotto is bemused by rumors as no-one has asked him” to move to Alpine.
After revealing the same, the F1 expert also questions why was Bruno Famin only named the interim team principal. Saward believes that this obviously means that the French outfit had someone in mind to replace Szafnauer.
So, according to the latest rumors Mattia Binotto could take over the role as Alpine Team Principal as early as September should contractual negotiations go according to plan. https://t.co/JXH7mTOXoA
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) August 5, 2023
However, with Alpine having failed to sign a permanent replacement yet, Saward does not understand what the team’s plans are moving forward. The Enstone-based outfit could still sign Binotto as the previous report did mention that the Italian will only join the team sometime in September.
How can Binotto help the Alpine?
If Alpine does sign Mattia Binotto, it could help them significantly because of the connections the Italian would have made during his time at Ferrari. Since Binotto worked at the Italian outfit for a long time, a report from Motorsport Italia (as quoted by soymotor.com) has indicated that the 53-year-old could persuade some of the engineers from the Prancing Horse to join him at Alpine.
The French outfit will undoubtedly need a huge amount of personnel since they are currently going through a restructuring process following the sacking of some big names such as Laurent Rossi, Otmar Szafnauer, Alan Permane, and Pat Fry. Following these departures, the report from Motorsport Italia states that Alpine could persuade two crucial Ferrari members to join their team.
The first is Enrico Gualtieri, who is Ferrari’s head of engines. Meanwhile, the second individual is Wolf Zimmerman, who is currently serving as the head of the 2026 power unit for the Italian team.
