Otmar Szafnauer Admits There Is “a disappointing feeling within the team”

It was an extremely disappointing Sunday for BWT Alpine F1 Team in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship‘s Singapore Grand Prix.

Team Principal, Otmar Szafnauer saw his team not score any points due to a double retirement with both car issues being suspected power unit issues. Esteban Ocon started from seventeenth on the grid after an issue with his brakes in Qualifying. The weekend was a poor one for the Frenchman, with him retiring in thirteenth place when he could have been much higher up considering the potential the car had.

Fernando Alonso did extract the potential from the car and qualified fifth, ahead of the team’s championship rival Lando Norris. Despite being jumped by the Brit at the start, Alonso looked to be having a stellar drive keeping soon-to-be two-time world champion Max Verstappen behind him until an engine issue forced the Spaniard out of his record-breaking three-hundred fiftieth race, making him the driver with the most Grand Prix starts.

Szafnauer was frustrated with the double retirement, especially in a race they looked to have good pace in throughout the weekend. This makes for a massive twist in the Constructors’ Championship, with McLaren F1 Team overtaking the French outfit for fourth in the standings after they had both cars in the top five.

“Unfortunately, we had a double retirement from today’s Singapore Grand Prix, which is a pity as we’ve been very competitive all weekend. It looks like we suffered a similar power unit issue on both cars, which we will investigate in detail.

“It’s important that we identify the root cause of what happened and put preventative measures in place to avoid a repeat. In terms of the progress of our race, it was challenging with the drying conditions and we were about to enter a window where could have made the call for dry tyres before our retirements.

Szafnauer is hoping the team can bounce back and put this result in the past with an extremely quick turnaround to the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.

“These days do happen in racing from time to time and while it’s a disappointing feeling within the team now, we have another race next weekend in Japan where we have the opportunity to recover. As a team, we’ll take this one in our stride and we already look forward to returning to Suzuka and racing at a fantastic circuit.”