“Shock” of poor start to season showed need for change at Alpine

Alpine team principal Bruno Famin says the team’s uncompetitive start to the year showed changes were needed in their technical division.

He placed three engineers in charge of different aspects of car development after the departures of technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer. The pair left following Alpine’s poor showing in the first race of the new season, where their A524s qualified on the back row of the grid.

Although Famin expected the team would need time to get the best from its new design, the extent of their troubles surprised him. “It was a shock because we were really expecting a difficult start of the season, we knew this, this is what we said during the launch of our car. But to be on the last row in the quali was a shock, to be honest.

“It just confirmed the need of changing in our team and we made the change.”

Development at Alpine is now headed by technical director for engineering Joe Burnell, technical director for aerodynamics David Wheater and technical director for performance Ciaron Pilbeam. The trio report to Famin, who said the new structure was a continuation of the changes made last year within their race operation.

“We really want to bring to the factories what we have done on the track-side by the end of the last season. I mean changing the mindset, unleashing the creativity.

“Having three technical directors makes the organisation much more horizontal, much less vertical. More activity, more agility. The motto is really to develop our people. We have very talented people and we want them to bring as much as they can to the project, to the team, to the company.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

He remains convinced “there is potential in this car” despite their difficult start to the season. “We have something coming for sure, but we also need to change our way of developing the car and maybe racing the car as well.”

“The car is totally new,” he added. “We have developments coming. We will work hard in developing the car.

“But of course, understanding what are the problems is key to solve it. And we have a quite clear idea of what are the problems and we are really working hard.”

Drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly had been consistent in their feedback about the A524’s main weakness, he added.

“One of the biggest complaints of the driver,…