Szafnauer: A good year for us is being closer to third

Szafnauer enters his second year as team boss for Alpine, after moving from Aston Martin last year, and was speaking at the launch of the team's A523 last week about the upcoming season and the team's plans to move up the order.

Alpine finished the 2022 season fourth in the Constructors' Standings, after beating McLaren, but were 342 points away from third-placed Mercedes, a gap Szafnauer and his team are keen to address.

"A good year for us is being a lot closer to third," Szafnauer said at the A523's launch. "There was a big gap between fourth and third last year, [so] being significantly closer to the top three and perhaps a little bit further away from fifth.

"Although we finished fourth, it was a hard-fought year with McLaren – we were only a few points ahead of them by the end. Fourth and fifth were nearly equal on points, and third was a long way away," he pointed out.

"We want to get significantly closer to third and be a solid fourth this year, and look to move even closer the year after, the Alpine boss maintained.

After their rebrand from Renault in 2021, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi announced a 100-race plan before the team becomes a regular contender for wins, and despite Esteban Ocon's victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, the team are still far away from winning regularly.

But Szafnauer insists the team are sticking to their plan; he said: "The 100-race plan is still our target and our goal. There’s a lot to do in between now and then, but yes, we’re monitoring that closely.

"It is a matter of tools, methodology and people, and that takes time," he went on. "Even if you identify the right skillsets and the people, if they’re coming from other teams, they’ll be on long notice periods or fixed-term contracts that you have to wait to run out.

"But we’re attracting the right people and, in the meantime, we’re putting the methodologies and tools in place that we need," Szafnauer concluded.

Alpine are fielding a revised driver lineup in 2023, with Pierre Gasly joining from AlphaTauri to replace Fernando Alonso, now at Aston Martin, after the team's initial plans to run their former junior driver Oscar Piastri failed as the Australian was scooped by McLaren.