Alfa Romeo boss explains how new structure will work without traditional team principal

Following the departure of Fred Vasseur to Ferrari, Sauber-run Alfa Romeo have opted against a direct replacement for the Frenchman, and will go into 2023 without a traditional team principal. Instead they’ve opted for an unconventional three-man management structure – but how will it work?

The Alfa Romeo C43 broke cover on Tuesday morning, sporting a red and black livery and a distinctly different floor and rear compared to last year’s car. Changes have also come thick and fast at Sauber’s Hinwil headquarters, with former McLaren boss Andreas Seidl now the group’s CEO, with Alessandro Alunni Bravi stepping into a new role as ‘Team Representative’.

He explained how the new structure will work in practice.

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“There is not only one structure that you can have for a Formula 1 team, and so we decided to split the functions between the different [people] on track and off track,” he said.

“I will be team representative, meaning that I will work together with Xevi Pujolar, our head of track engineering, together with Beat Zehnder, the sporting director – but I will have different functions from them.

“I will represent the team vis-a-vis the FIA, with Formula 1, and of course with media and sponsors.”

Alfa Romeo show off 2023 C43 F1 car with a striking new livery

Alunni Bravi added that Alfa Romeo have opted for this structure for the sake of efficiency, and explained that the usual team principal functions will be spread across numerous people.

“I think this is important and I think this structure will help to address in a better way all the tasks we have ahead of us,” he continued. “It’s simply a different structure, and I think all the teams are developing all their models in order to be more efficient.

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“Efficient is a key word, it’s not just a matter of being efficient at the workshop, but we need to be efficient at the track. We have internal processes that we have of course agreed all together and I think this will be the difference. ‘Team principal’ is a name; what we have is the function of a team principal that is split over different profiles – myself, Beat Zehnder… and Xevi Pujolar on the technical side.”

Alfa Romeo became the fourth team to unveil their 2023 livery on Tuesday, after Haas, Red Bull and Williams.