There is turmoil behind the scenes at the Formula 1 team known as Alfa Romeo. “It was very disappointing that the contract wasn’t signed,” the former McLaren driver said at the Racer-Epartrade Online Race Industry Week event. Ultimately, team boss Frederic Vasseur overlooked all other candidates as well in order to sign the Chinese-backed Formula 2 frontrunner Guanyu Zhou. The end-result is that Pascal Picci, Sauber Motorsport’s chairman representing team owner Longbow Finance, has decided to quit the project entirely. “A month ago, Pascal Picci decided he had had enough and quit. He doesn’t want anything to do with Vasseur anymore,” said Benoit, who thinks Picci was also against the signing of Valtteri Bottas.

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