Otmar Szafnauer opens up on Aston Martin and Alpine exit, Oscar Piastri fiasco and weighs in on bosses and F1 drivers he worked with.
In a long video interview at High Performance, Szafnauer opened on his side of things with regards to how things panned out at Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin and Alpine in his last few years in F1, before he was let off by the French outfit.
He went behind the scenes on why he left Aston Martin and working under both Vijay Mallya and Lawrence Stroll, at different points of time. He elaborated on what went wrong with Alpine and how the decline happened for him and potentially for the F1 team too.
He revealed about paying salaries from his own pocket at Force India and why he did so. Further on, he wants to have his own Formula 1 team in future, potentially backed by American investors, but having its headquarters in the United Kingdom.
Towards the end, Szafnauer spoke about Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. In fact, he said the German was the best driver he has worked with and praised his work ethics. He added that he wouldn’t employ Rubens Barrichello ever again.
Talking about the ones he hasn’t worked with but wants to if he ever gets the chance, were Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. To end it off, he spoke about his new company/application, EventR. Here: https://eventr.softpauer.com/
Here’s Pierre Gasly knowing from January about Alpine weakness
Here’s Renault employees being unhappy
Here’s Groupe Renault decision
Here’s Pierre Gasly on Singapore GP sacrifice
