New Alpine boss identifies ‘top priority’ upon Enstone return

New Alpine managing director, Steve Nielsen, has detailed his top priority after rejoining the Enstone-based operation.

Nielsen spent time at the squad during the early 2000s before moving away, returning now to run the team in partnership with Flavio Briatore.

Steve Nielsen’s outlines top priority as Alpine looks to future

Nielsen returns to Enstone at a key time as the squad pivots away from being a full works effort into a customer team for F1 2026.

Though it is majority owned by French automaker Renault, the operation will be powered by customer Mercedes engines next season after the decision was made to end its in-house power unit programme.

Nielsen also arrives at a team at the foot of the Constructors’ Championship with 20 points, 24 down on Haas in ninth with seven rounds remaining.

“We have got great facilities, but the product we’ve put on the track doesn’t reflect the effort of the people here, and the facilities we have here,” Nielsen declared in a video posted to the team’s social media channels.

“My top priority is to make sure that Enstone produce the best car we can.

“You have to have an eye on the future,” he added. “You have to sacrifice short-term success and invest in the future, and we’re going through that at the moment.

“I’m a great believer that you find out more about people when things go badly than when things go well, because you see what people are really made of. There are those people that are willing to dig deep, find an extra gear and keep pushing.”

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As first reported by PlanetF1.com, Nielsen has been appointed to fill the hole left by Oliver Oakes, who resigned as team principal in the days following the Miami Grand Prix.

Nielsen joined the team last month, having most recently been working with Formula One Management following a brief stint with the FIA.

Prior to that, he worked with Williams, Toro Rosso, Caterham, having been sporting director at Renault from the late 1990s, including during Fernando Alonso’s two championship-winning campaigns in 2005 and 2006. He also had spells with Lotus, Arrows and Tyrrell in an F1 career that stretches back to 1986.

“I didn’t think I’d know many people here, but it’s a mixture of the familiar and the new,” he said of his return to Enstone.

“It’s a real exciting time for me to be back. It’s a privilege to be back. This is my home. The biggest part of my professional life has been here; my biggest successes, I suppose, have been here. And to come back, the sort of late stage of my career is a real privilege.

“For the last eight years, I haven’t been in a racing team; I was at F1,” he continued.

“I had a great time in F1, but you miss the highs and lows that come with competition, and ultimately that’s why I decided to come back, back to my home, if you like, because I missed the cut and thrust of competition. So it’s wonderful to be back.”

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