F1 | Alain Prost parts ways with Alpine, says Rossi is to blame for his exit
It has been announced that Non-Executive Director and four-time world champion Alain Prost will depart from the Alpine team.
Just a short while after it was announced that Marcin Budkowski, the executive director of Alpine will leave the team with immediate effect, the team decided to drop another big news - that Alain Prost, four-time World Champion who has been advising Alpine will leave as well.
It seems that the Alpine team is going through a restructuration of its management base ahead of the 2022 season.
Prost initially took the role in 2017, while the team was still figuring under the Renault name, and stayed for 2021 after the switch to Alpine. The actual reasons of departure are unknown, but interestingly enough, Prost took to instagram to share his anger in how this news has been announced to the public. As he written in his post: “I am very disappointed how this new has been annnouced today ! It was agreed that we would announce together with @alpinef1team ! No respect sorry ! I have refused the offer made to me in abudhabi for the 2022 season because of a personal relationship and I was right ! To the Enstone and Viry team I will miss you.”
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After that, also some other things started to surface up: according to a BBC article Prost blames the Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi for being responsible for his departure. As he said during the interview: "Laurent Rossi's desire is to be alone, not to be polluted by anyone. He told me he no longer needed advice. There is a real desire to put a lot of people on the sidelines.”
Is the departure of Prost and Budkowski a sign of Rossi trying to change the structures in the team, or is it a signal of some deeper issues going on at Alpine?
