Otmar Szafnauer's job at risk after scathing assessment from Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has allegedly delivered an ultimatum to the company's Formula 1 arm, Alpine Racing, after a woeful start to the season.

In an interview with Canal+ before the Miami Grand Prix he called the racing team "amateur" but was probably a bit happier after both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon scored points.

However, even with the double points haul, Alpine have only managed 14 points from the first four races of the season and that is simply not good enough according to Rossi.

"It starts with owning up to your mistakes, to not repeat the mistakes, to learn from your mistakes," he told the Formula 1 website.

"It's okay to make mistakes, it's not okay to make them twice because it means you didn't learn. This year, there is a lot of excuses, which lead to poor performance and a lack of operational excellence.

"I need to tackle this, I need the right people to tackle this. I need the team to be aware they need to do that as it's not up to me - it's up to them, they have to do it.

"It's their responsibility. I hope they make the same diagnosis. I will make it clear to them that this is the diagnosis and they need to fix that."

He also did not mince words when it came to team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

"He is responsible for the performance of the team - that's his job," added Rossi.

"There is no hiding here. Otmar was brought in to steer the team, through the season and the next seasons towards the objectives that we have, which is to constantly make progress, as we did in the first two years - fifth and fourth - and to get to the podiums and therefore, this is his mission to turn this team around and bring it to the performance that we want.

"We had a team that performed reasonably well last year, got the fourth position which is the best improvement we had in a long time. It showed a lot of promise. It's more or less the same people so I don't accept that we are not capable of maintaining that. Yes, it is Otmar and the rest of his team as Otmar alone doesn't do everything, but the buck stops with Otmar. It's Otmar's responsibility, yes.

"Trust is something that increases with good results and erodes with bad results. Everyone starts with a capital of trust and then you manage it.

"There are only so many setbacks you can take in a sport, in a competition world, because basically, it shows. Everyone can tell whether or not you're going in the right direction. It directly impacts your capital of trust. I would say Otmar is very capable, but he has a big task on his hands."