Alpine plays down Brivio exit rumours

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has played down reports suggesting new racing director Davide Brivio might be on the cusp of returning to MotoGP.

Italian Brivio joined the Renault-owned Formula 1 team this year but has indicated that his adjustment after running MotoGP outfits has been more difficult than expected.

"The first thing I notice is that Davide is very much missed on the MotoGP side," Rossi admitted to Auto Hebdo.

"But for me, he is doing a very good job. He brings a lot to the management of the drivers and to the cohesion of the team on the track.

"So for me, there is no Davide Brivio topic to talk about. He meets expectations. Like all managers of the team, he will be evaluated on the achievements and results of this year," he added.

However, Alpine is openly disappointed about staring down the prospect of finishing just fifth overall again in 2021.

It is being blamed not only on the 2021 rule changes, but choosing to hold off on introducing a brand new power unit this year until the new regulations in 2022.

"That is the law of F1," Rossi insisted. "When you are not progressing, you are regressing. It’s all relative.

"So when you do an engine freeze, you have to regress the following year and that’s what happened."

Rossi described Alpine’s 2022 engine as "drastically" different.

"It will have an impact on the car, the chassis, the size of the cooling and other things. So this engine is going to be very different from the current engine, that’s for sure," he said.