Alpine announced on Monday that it will henceforth have three technical directors, with responsibilities shared by Joe Burnell (engineering), David Wheater (aerodynamics) and Ciaron Pilbeam (performance), all reporting to Famin.
The changes, which come in the wake of the resignations of technical director Matt Harman and aerodynamics head Dirk de Beer, mirror those made by McLaren when its technical director James Key departed for Sauber in early 2023.
The Woking team created a new horizontal structure headed by three technical directors, namely Peter Prodromou (aerodynamics), David Sanchez (car concept and performance) and Neil Houldey (engineering and design).
Although Sanchez wasn’t able to start until early 2024 the changes coincided with the Woking team’s surge in form as it successfully developed the MCL60.
Famin admits that Alpine looked at the McLaren example when trying to find a way forward.
“For sure, we have seen that,” he told Autosport. “It gave us the answer to the question if it may work, and it looks like it’s working.
“I’m not saying it will make everything of course, but we have seen with McLaren that this kind of this kind of organisation can give a boost. And this is what we’re looking for.
“I think a very vertical structure is less reactive, less adapted to modern F1, where everything is so complex. You just need everybody to move forward all together in parallel, of course, constantly exchanging information and communication.”
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524, Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524
Photo by: Alpine
Famin says that the team’s poor form in Bahrain testing and the season-opening race was not the driver for the shake-up, which had been under discussion for some time.
“The timeline of the changes has nothing to do with the performance of the weekend,” he said.
“There is no link between our performance and Matt and Dirk’s departure. The real thing is that we have been thinking about how to move to the next step in the Alpine project.
“For quite some time now. and even when it was Renault before, we are making one step forward, one step backward, two steps forward, one backward, etcetera.
“We are not really generating the dynamic of progress that we want to have. And then we thought that it was time to change our approach from the technical point of view, and that’s the real reason for the changes.”
Famin says that the team has to demonstrate consistent…
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