Two rivals on different paths
McLaren and Alpine were neck-and-neck for much of last year. Now they're on wildly different paths.
As F1 approaches the mid-season break, McLaren is relishing a phenomenal surge in performance while Alpine is impressing no one with their lacklustre form.
These two teams are classic midfield rivals, having fought to be “best of the rest” for a handful of years. They also share the same ultimate goal: cement themselves as regular contenders for podiums and wins.
Alpine looked far closer to achieving that goal when 2023 began. That’s because McLaren slipped to the back of the field, having missed development targets during the winter break.
But, after 11 races, the fortunes of the two rivals have essentially flipped.
Thanks to major upgrades, McLaren’s car is now genuinely on the level of Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin.
Alpine, by comparison, has gone nowhere this year - and now there’s been some management changes.
McLaren’s 2023 turnaround
When the year began, McLaren was in a bad place.
Team boss Andreas Seidl departed over the winter break and before the season began, new boss Andrea Stella said he wasn’t “entirely happy” with the 2023 car.
At the first race in Bahrain, both McLaren cars had issues; Oscar Piastri retired and Lando Norris limped home last. Soon after, Stella restructured McLaren’s technical leadership and technical director James Key left the team.
In Saudi Arabia, the second race of the year, Lando Norris was directly asked whether McLaren was in a crisis. “Everyone makes it sound a lot worse than it is,” he replied.
Still, the results suggested a crisis of sorts. McLaren failed to finish inside the top ten in five of the first eight races.
Then, at the 9th race in Austria, it all changed.
Clad with major upgrades, Lando Norris drove his way to a brilliant 4th at the Red Bull Ring, a result which marked the beginning of a sudden resurgence.
At the next two races, Britain and Hungary, the upgraded McLarens were comfortably fighting at the front, with Norris and Piastri both qualifying and finishing inside the top five.
Norris quipped after Hungary, where he finished 2nd: “I’m happy we finally proved some people wrong.”
McLaren’s phenomenal turnaround is best illustrated by their points haul. In the first eight races of the year, they got 17. In the last three, they’ve scored 70.
Meanwhile, it’s worth noting McLaren’s fortunes away from the track are looking good too.
In recent months, Ferrari engineer David Sanchez and veteran Red Bull engineering officer Rob Marshall were hired to join the new technical leadership for 2024.
Meanwhile, McLaren’s flash new wind tunnel has been completed - it is expected to help with the development of the 2024 car.
Motorsport.com F1 editor Jonathan Noble said after Silverstone that, under new team boss Andrea Stella, McLaren was “quietly moving forwards”
“And that’s exactly why its rivals had better watch out.”
Trouble at Alpine?
On the other side of the coin, Alpine is developing a reputation as a team that promises so much, yet never makes the crucial step forward.
This year, the team was confident it would step forward and break free from the shackles of the midfield. It hasn’t.
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi went public about his frustrations back in May, telling F1.com the team’s trajectory was bad and the mindset must be fixed immediately.
Interestingly, last week Rossi was replaced - a change which has come on the heels of Bruno Famin being appointed vice president of Alpine motorsports.
In short, these two changes mean Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer now reports to Famin, and Famin reports to Philippe Krief, the man who has replaced Rossi.
So, why the management change?
In Hungary, one journalist suggested to Szafnauer that it only occurs amid unhappiness, a point that Szafnauer didn’t really address directly.
Though he did comment: “We wanted to be fourth this year and we're still working hard to make sure that we can be at least the fourth fastest team by the end of the year.”
It’s no doubt a lofty goal given Alpine now looks to be sixth in the pecking order behind Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren Ferrari, and Aston Martin.
Additionally, their current points tally is nearly half of what it was 12 months ago.
Races this year have been compromised by a mixture of driver errors, poor reliability and plain bad luck. Esteban Ocon’s 3rd place in Monaco is about the only high point.
This past weekend in Hungary, Alpine expected the track to suit their car, yet Ocon and teammate Pierre Gasly were both knocked out in Q2.
Then on Sunday, Ocon and Gasly were both unluckily eliminated on lap one, taken out in a collision they could do little about.
Szafnauer said on Friday in Hungary that Alpine would continue upgrading their car and the team as planned. He described it as “putting the tools in place that we need”.
He also pushed back on suggestions that the Alpine management changes would affect the team.
Previous Alpine CEO Rossi had long touted the team’s “100-race plan” to return to championship contention. It essentially replaced Renault’s1 failed “five-year plan”.
Hungary’s double retirement was race number 55 for Alpine. Only 45 left to pull off a McLaren-like leap up the field.
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Some context here for newer F1 fans. Alpine is owned by Renault. Essentially, “the company” returned to F1 in 2016 with a five-year vision to get to the top and didn’t. Now, they have a new team name and a new plan.