Recent times for Alpine have been turbulent to say the least, the Enstone-based outfit seeing the departure of senior staff such as experienced team boss Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry leaving for Williams and also thirty-four year veteran Alan Permane their former Sporting Director severing ties with the team after his dissatisfaction with the direction the team was going in. Laurent Rossi, the team’s CEO was moved to helm ‘special projects’ and Bruno Famin was appointed team boss in the interim.
This season has seen the team lurch from one end of the midfield to the other and their best result’s a podium from new arrival Pierre Gasly at the Dutch Grand Prix and another podium in Monaco for Esteban Ocon. But it seems there are deeply rooted divides within team staff – between English and French staff in particular which has prompted Renault CEO Luca de Meo to visit Enstone last Wednesday and deliver a speech intended to fire up the team and heal said divides. As reported in French newspaper L’Equipe; the English and French team members have been staying in separate hotels during Grand Prix weekends and not even dining at the same table in the paddock – something de Meo wants to put a stop to and was quoted as saying: “I believe one of the key challenges is to unify all the personnel”.
De Meo went on to say that while the team has potential, “the challenge lies in bringing everyone together to enhance performance.”
“The Hundred Years’ War between England and France concluded a long time ago.”
Commenting on the long delayed new simulator at the Enstone base, the Renault CEO said that in the time it had been delayed a new factory capable of producing 750,000 passenger vehicles annually could have been constructed, no doubt frustrated that a project of that scale should have such a long gestation period in comparison. De Meo now wants team members from both sides of the channel to undergo intensive team building exercises in France – including training with the GIGN – the counterterrorism and hostage rescue unit of France’s Gendarmerie.
Whether or not the Renault boss’ speech can indeed light a fire under the team and galvanise them to work together to make the step forward they have been seemingly on the verge of long prior to being rebranded as Alpine remains to be seen but his intent is clear – heads will roll if dramatic changes do not take place and the Enstone/Viry rift cannot be healed and the people incapable of moving on from the “old patterns” as he put it will be considered persona non grata and sacked. Though de Meo recently ruled out selling the team, perhaps to stand by that things will need to change rather quickly.
