Two top members of Alpine’s technical team have left in the wake of their poor start to the new season.
Technical director Matt Harman, who presented the team’s new A524 chassis less than a month ago, and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer have left.
Alpine has implemented new structure for its technical division involving a trio of directors who will report to team principal Bruno Famin. These three technical directors are Joe Burnell for engineering, David Wheater for aerodynamics and Ciaron Pilbeam for performance.
The team’s cars qualified on the back row of the grid for the season-opening round in Bahrain last weekend. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finished the race 17th and 18th respectively after two of their rivals were delayed.
Famin said the changes were needed in order to improve the team’s competitiveness. “We have decided to make these organisational changes as we can clearly see that we are not where we want nor need to be in terms of performance level and it is time to take another step in terms of organisation and people,” he said.
“The new three-pillared structure with three technical directors, each specialising in different areas, will bring better work and collaboration across our technical areas and contribute to delivering performance from the factories to the race track.
“I trust fully in the abilities of Joe, David and Ciaron to work closely together in bringing the team the performance and improvements that it needs. Finally, I would like to thank Matt and Dirk for their efforts over the last couple of years at the team and wish them the very best in the next chapter of their careers.”
Alpine has lost many of its top staff over the last 12 months. Famin replaced Otmar Szafnauer as team principal in July, when long-standing sporting director Alan Permane also chose to leave the team. Chief technical officer Pat Fry also departed for Williams around the same time, and at the end of the year racing director Davide Brivio left.
The team said in a statement the latest change had come about “after a period of disappointing results in the FIA Formula 1 world championship, where the team has fallen from finishing fourth in the 2022 Championship to sixth in 2023, missing several key targets in its ambitions to reach the front of the grid.”
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Formula 1
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