The departure of a team lifer shows the “pain and trouble” at Alpine

Almost 10 years ago, Alan Permane briefly attained notoriety for a sharp radio exchange with one of Formula 1’s most famous figures.

Back when the team now known as Alpine raced as Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen was struggling with grip in an ultra-long stint during the Indian Grand Prix. As a result, he got in the way of team mate Romain Grosjean, who was forced off the track as he tried to pass.

“Kimi, get out of the fucking way,” demanded Permane in his ear. Raikkonen, naturally, gave back as good as he got, and team principal Eric Boullier had to apologise for the brusque exchange between the pair.

At that point, Permane had already been with the squad for over 20 years. The outfit has been through so many changes of name it tends to be referred to as ‘team Enstone’, yet Permane joined them even before they moved to their Oxfordshire base.

Such was his longevity it was hard to ever imagine him leaving. Yet that extraordinary development came to pass at Spa-Francorchamps.

In a shock announcement, Alpine dispensed with not only Permane but team principal Otmar Szafnauer. At the same time, chief technical officer Pat Fry jumped ship to take up the same role at Williams.

It leaves Alpine rather bare. The team announced that Bruno Famin, vice president of Alpine Motorsports, will take over as interim team principal from the Dutch Grand Prix and Julian Rouse, who previously headed up its young driver academy, the interim sporting director. Back at base in Enstone, Matt Harman will lead the technical team and report directly to Famin.

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Szafnauer had only been with Alpine 18 months following his departure from Aston Martin. His leaving the team was less of a surprise given the replacement of Laurent Rossi as CEO of Alpine a few weeks earlier. A change of direction was clearly coming.

However the loss of a team lifer in Permane reflects how seismic the changes truly are at Alpine. Nicknamed ‘Bat’ from his early years in the sport due to his propensity for working into the small hours, his departure feels like the teams’ foundations have been shaken.

What we now call Alpine began its F1 life as Toleman, 42 years and six names ago. After being taken over by Benetton, the rise of Michael Schumacher led to championship success in the mid-nineties. That was repeated a decade later, now under Renault’s ownership, with Fernando Alonso.

In the wake of the notorious Crashgate episode, Renault offloaded the team to Genii Capital in 2009, who rebranded it as Lotus. However within six years Renault had decided to re-establish its works team, and in 2021 it was rebranded after its performance division Alpine.

Permane has been a constant throughout almost all of that. He walked through the doors of Benetton in 1989 at the age of 22 and remained as a succession of drivers, team bosses and identities came and went.

In the first two years of its current identity the team rose from fifth in the championship to fourth. Its target for this year was not to go one better but close on the top three. Yet after Spa it lies sixth in the constructors’ championship, 46 points off McLaren in fifth and a massive 446 off leaders Red Bull.

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According to Famin, the reason for the ousting of both Szafnauer and Permane was that they did not share the top management’s expectations of the team’s rate of progress.

“We didn’t take away anybody,” Famin stated after being asked why they decided to drop Szafnauer and Permane. “We have just chosen to go a different route because we were not fully aligned.

“When I say I had never lost confidence in Otmar it’s because I know his skills, I know his background, I know like Alan, they are very good professionals of Formula 1. But we need to be on the same line and we were not.”

Williams team principal James Vowles, who pounced on the opportunity to lure Pat Fry away from Alpine, said it is clear all is not well at the team.

“In their position, they’re clearly in a lot of pain and trouble and through a conversion phase,” said Vowles.

“The bit I can say is that Pat’s not a part of that change that they’re going through. Pat’s decision was made many, many months ago.

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“And I’d probably say if you go and look at what was happening in the media with Alpine around that time, you might even be able to pinpoint when it was happening.”

In April, when Rossi was still in charge, he described the team’s start to the season as “disappointing” and “I want to say, even bad.” A few months later he was moved aside to head up Alpine’s ‘special projects’.

Permane’s exit shocked many in Formula 1. Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff said he would obviously be of interest to rival teams as a potential hiring.

“Alan Permane is one of the rocks of Formula 1,” began Wolff. “One of the longest-standing senior engineers in the sport, and certainly someone with a lot of knowledge.

“I don’t know about ins and outs of the management reshuffle there, but there’s a lot of very respectable and top people in there and you shouldn’t discount anyone of that seniority.”

Red Bull’s Christian Horner – in rare agreement with his opposite number at Mercedes – said he “did not want to be drawn into commenting on other teams” but was also surprised to learn of Permane’s departure.

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“Whilst I’ve never worked with Alan Permane, or Bat as he’s more commonly known up and down the pit lane, I think sometimes there has to be respect shown for somebody who’s put in 34 years of hard graft and been involved in world championships with Michael Schumacher, with Fernando Alonso.

“He’s also been a steady hand during periods of that team going virtually going into administration, out of administration and into different ownership. He’s very much been a constant there during that period. I think that earns respect and recognition.

“I’m sure he’s a guy, as with Otmar, it won’t be the last you’ll see of them in the pit lane, I’ve no doubt about that.”

While Famin reiterated Alpine had not lost confidence in Szafnauer and Permane, what remains to be seen now is who will the team put in place to accelerate their progress to a rate the top management consider acceptable. Alpine need to be clever with how they move forward. Stability is key in Formula 1, but with the loss of Permane alone almost three-and-a-half decades of institutional memory have just walked out the doors of Enstone.

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