Otmar Szafnauer has described Al♌pine’s interfering⛎ senior management as “problematic”.

Szafnauer was Alpine F1 team principal for approximately 18 months.

His surprise departure♊ was ultimately announced in the middle of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend🃏.

Since leaving the team, Alpine have struggled,♕ dropping to ninth in the constructors’ championship in 2024.

Speaking on tꦚhe High Performance podcast, Szafnauer reve🥂aled the main problem was that he didn’t have “control” over the entire team despite being team principal.

“There’s a few things that went wrong at Alpine, one of whꦗich was I didn’t have control over the entire team,” Szafnauer said.

“So for example, and I knew straight away, HR [human resources] didn’t report to me, reported up through France. The finance office di⛄dn’t report to me, reported up through France.

“The communications department didn’t report to me and tಞhe marketing group, commercial, didn’t report to me. And that in itself I knew was going to be problematic.

“Before I took﷽ the job, it was ‘everyone’s reporting to me’. I get there and that’s🍒 not the case.

“And I knew at the beginning – I thought I coul𓂃d manage it, but I knew it’s just problematic.”

Alpine have been one of the biggest disappointmenꩲts of the 2024 campaign, scoring just 13 points in eight rounds.

They drafted in Flavio Briatore😼 as a senior advisor to turn the🐭 team around.

Szafnauer was blunt in assessing his for༒mer team’s campaign.

“I don’t know where they are today – ninth or something in the championship – tod♛ay it’s a disa♔ster,” he added.

“Back🅠 then, yeah, it’s a half-step back, but sometimes you take a half-step back to take two steps forw𓆉ard.”