Alpine satisfied: 'It was a successful approach'

At Alpine, they are fairly satisfied with the fourth place achieved in the constructors' championship. The French team had obviously hoped to fight with the absolute top, but that proved to be just a bridge too far. A whole new structure was set up this year and that should start to pay off in the coming seasons.

Marcin Budkowski and Alain Prost left the team and top man Davide Brivio has been relegated to the background. Otmar Szafnauer was instead brought in as team boss, while Laurent Rossi holds the position of CEO. It marked yet another reorganisation within Alpine (formerly Renault) in just a few years. Nevertheless, Rossi is confident that the right path has now been taken.

"At the beginning of this season, the goal was to set up a new structure, and we have done that. That structure is meant to offer innovations and improvements during the season and to be more competitive. It was a successful approach and it allowed us to finish the year in a better position [than in previous seasons]," said Rossi, who maintains that all goals have been achieved.

Alpine is satisfied

The fourth place this World Championship is only the beginning for Alpine, the French boss stated to AS: "It is important to finish fourth, not only financially, but also sportingly. We want to try to progress every year to eventually overtake the best teams and get as high as possible. It was important not to make any mistakes in our first step."

In management, nothing is changing this season. By contrast, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso did leave for rival Aston Martin. Pierre Gasly was brought in as a replacement and will compete with Esteban Ocon over the next two seasons.