02/10/2025
NEWS STORY
Delighted to be back at his 'spiritual F1 home', Alpine MD Steve Nielsen admits that there is much work to be done to turn things around.
The Briton, who was sporting director at Enstone for Fernando Alonso's back-to-back titles with Renault, returned to the Oxfordshire facility at the beginning of last month having spent several years as Sporting Director at F1 and then 11 months in a similar role with the FIA, quitting the job seemingly because he was unhappy with certain aspects of his role.
However, on returning to Enstone, now under the leadership of Flavio Briatore, Nielsen admits that the team - currently last in the standings - is but a shadow of its former self.
"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," he admits in a video on the Alpine social media feed.
"My top priority is to make sure that Enstone produce the best car we can," he adds.
While aware that sorting the current mess is going to be a significant task, the Briton is looking ahead to next year, when the team controversially switches from Renault power to Mercedes, and beyond.
"You have to have an eye on the future," he says. "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," he continues. "There are those people that are willing to dig deep, find an extra gear and keep pushing."
Following those heady days at Enstone, Nielsen spent time with Caterham, Toro Rosso and Williams, but now returns to where his F1 heart lies.
"I didn't think I'd know many people here, but it's a mixture of the familiar and the new," he says. "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 adds. "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."