Former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed the reason he left the side midseason in 2023. At the time the Romanian left, Renault’s top management revealed that they were undergoing a mass exodus to reform the team.
However, little did anyone know about what was going on behind the scenes. Szafnauer recently revealed the harsh truth about his exit in an interview on the High-Performance podcast. He said,
“I didn’t have control over the entire team”.
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He then added how various factions of the organization such as human resources and the finance office did not report to him. Instead, he revealed that they reported directly to the parent company in France. Szafnauer knew that this scenario was “problematic” from the get-go.
When asked if he was aware of the reporting structure before he agreed to join the team, he replied, “No,” much to the surprise of the hosts of the podcast. The Romanian then added that before he took the job, he was told that everyone will report to him. Szafnauer then explained how he was keen to change the corporate structure but on his terms.
Szafnauer left Alpine after he was asked to sack high-performing individuals
During the same interview, he explained why he did not agree with what he was asked to do to change the corporate structure of the team. Speaking of what the higher management wanted, he added, “They wanted a corporate culture change, in a different manner. You know to get rid of some people that were doing a good job”.
Szafnauer revealed that he did not agree with the higher management as getting rid of people “who did a good job” would send the wrong message. He believes that people would get the message that if they did a good job, they “would be fired”.
When asked if the Alpine management “explicitly” asked him to change to such a culture, Szafnauer replied, “Yes. I was asked and I said no”.
