On Miami Grand Prix weekend, the Enstone-based team found itself in the firing line of Alpine chief executive Laurent Rossi as he lashed out at this year’s lack of results.

Rossi told Canal+: “Not only did I notice a clear lack of performance and rigor in terms of delivery, but the underlying mentality was also not up to the standard that this team used to have.”

Rossi also said he was impressed with Esteban Ocon’s triple penalty in Bahrain and the problems that marred the team’s weekend in Baku.

“I didn’t like the first grand prix because there was a lot of – I’m sorry to say this – amateurism, which led to an incorrect result. It was mediocre, bad.

“The last game in Baku was very similar to the one in Bahrain. It’s unacceptable.”

Despite the buzz surrounding the headline-grabbing comments, Szafnauer insisted he had not read any reports on the matter.

Moreover, he said, any such public criticism would not change the determination within the team to do better.

“Reading something like that on paper doesn’t put more pressure on (us),” he said when asked by Motorsport.com if there was more of a need to do better now.

“Everybody wants to do well here. We’re experienced, we have the highest level of technicians and engineers, and we put pressure on ourselves. So, we just have to fix it.”

Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523

Photography: Alpine

Szafnauer said Rossi’s comments hadn’t made the team realize they weren’t doing everything they expected this year.

“I see you wrote something because I saw the title, but I haven’t read it yet,” he said.

“But we didn’t do well in Baku. The drivers met in Australia and I think in the first race we had numerous penalties, starting with Esteban’s mistakes.

“The season has not started well, maybe that’s why he made the comments. But I have to read them.”

Szafnauer said the team’s priority is to learn from all the issues that have arisen this year and make changes to processes and infrastructure to ensure the same mistakes are not repeated.

“When we have a problem like in Baku, all we can do is find and understand the root cause of it happening and make sure we put processes or people in place so it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

“We had an engine fire on one side and we had to make sure that didn’t happen. Then we had some finger issues on the other side. With finger issues, once you understand how it happens, there are ways to mitigate it. This That’s what we’re going to do. We’ve done it. It’s not happening here.”

Alpine F1 Team CEO Laurent Rossi

Photography: Alpine

Rossi’s remarks were clearly meant to send a message, although it’s unclear what the immediate motive was.

He may have been trying to deflect the pressure, or they may be laying the groundwork for the changes he plans to make in the team.

Szafnauer said he doesn’t directly know why Rossi made the statement, but he does plan to find out.

He added: “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him. I’ll ask him. I’ve been too busy this weekend to discuss it yet.”