F1 | Alpine Will Not Have a Team Principal in 2021
The French team will not have a single person to cover the position, with the tasks formerly covered by Cyril Abiteboul to be split between Racing Director Davide Brivio and Executive Director Marcin Budkowski.
New season, new life. Former Renault team has undergone a thorough rebranding, starting the 2021 season with a different name -Alpine-, a brand-new livery after five years, inspired by the glorious past of the brand and the French flag, and the return of Fernando Alonso, who won with the team two world championships, in 2005 and 2006.
However, the aesthetic isn't going to be the main novelty. The French team has also changed their management with the dismissal of the Team Principal role, which had been covered in the previous seven years by Cyril Abiteboul.
Rather than having a single person for the job, the tasks formerly attended to by the Frenchman will be split between Executive Director Marcin Budkowski and newly-appointed Racing Director Davide Brivio.
Laurant Rossi, Alpine CEO, explained the team's choice:”Marcin will be in charge of the development of the chassis and the powertrain, so he'll coordinate the whole development of the car, Davide will be racing director. So, the two of them will work in tandem to extract the best out of the car, that has been designed to put us into the best position in the future.”
Rossi stated that the majority of the power structure in the team will remain the same as last season's, and that the roles, and the responsibilities of everyone are clear.
The new organization will allow Budkowski to focus on the design and the supervision of the project for the 2022 challenger by not forcing him to attend every race weekend, especially the ones near the end of the season, with Brivio expected to step in.
“Managing a team and going to all races is very, very difficult,” Budkowski said. “For me, it’s personally great to have Davide on board, apart from all the skills he brings from his other motorsport experiences.”
Racing Director Davide Brivio, who left Team Suzuki after seven years and scoring a world title in the last season with Joan Mir, will work mainly on the grid, and have a close relationship with the drivers.
Budkowski had only kind words for him: "He knows how to manage drivers, he knows how to motivate them, he knows how to organise a garage. It’s going to be a great contribution to have him there, and we can share the role and really make sure that we don’t leave anything without the attention that it requires.”
