With the departure of former team principal Cyril Abiteboul at the beginning of 2021, the team unusually replaced him with two heads. Executive director Budkowski led car development and Davide Brivio, fresh from the Suzuki MotoGP team which had powered Joan Mir to the title, was appointed to take charge of trackside operations.
However, a year after the structure was announced, Budkowski parted ways with the team, paving the way for Szafnauer to join.
Szafnauer entered F1 with British American Racing in 1998, starting as operations director before joining Honda as vice president of its F1 programme. He joined Force India in 2009, leading the team from last in the constructors’ championship to fourth on a limited budget. In its later guise of Racing Point, he saw the team take its first win with Sergio Perez at Sakhir in 2020.
Laurent Rossi, CEO of Alpine, said that the Formula 1 team was now “complete” as it looked to move in to title contention. “With Otmar and Bruno joining the team, we move to a new level for 2022,” he said.
“Otmar will bring his unique experience in motor sports and his uncompromising desire to win, while Bruno’s proven track record in building technologies that make a difference in competition and their subsequent transference to road cars is critical for our project as a sports team and as a brand.
“Over the past year I have seen Davide’s talent to identify the best in people, and to make them perform as well as they can. I am delighted to utilise this unique skill across all existing Alpine assets and new ones we are just starting to explore. Our band of racers is complete and ready to bring the team towards its ambitious objectives in 2022.”