Szafnauer makes odd ‘nine pregnant women’ analogy in parting shot at Alpine

Szafnauer headlined a dramatic exodus of Alpine’s F1 management that sent shockwaves around the paddock during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. 

Along with Szafnauer, long-serving sporting director Alan Permane has also left, while it was confirmed that chief technical officer Pat Fry has been hired by Williams to become their new technical director. 

Alpine vice president and interim team boss Bruno Famin explained that the changes, which he described as being a “mutual” split, were down to Szafnauer and Permane not being “on the same line” as the team’s hierarchy. 

Speaking prior to his official departure on Monday, Szafnauer appeared to take a swipe at Alpine by inferring that the team has unrealistic expectations while making a rather bizarre analogy. 

“The reality is that changes take time,” he told Sky Deutschland. “I signed some good people from other teams, but they are still stuck in their contracts and won’t come until 2024 or 2025.

“You can’t really push development if people aren’t there. It takes time for people to come and it takes time for people to work together correctly.

“I always say, you can’t get nine women pregnant and hope you have a baby in a month.”

Szafnauer confirmed that he won’t return to the F1 paddock for at least a year due to a lengthy period of gardening leave. 

“The bad news is that it will be a year before we can do it again,” he added. 

After double retirements at both Silverstone and the Hungaroring, Alpine returned to the points at Spa, with Pierre Gasly claiming third in the sprint race, while Esteban Ocon impressively rose from 14th to salvage eighth in Sunday’s main grand prix.