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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Martin (@f1hornet)
4th March 2024, 13:44
As a Watford FC fan, I’m not sure this approach of constantly firing people is going to work out!
notagrumpyfan
4th March 2024, 14:56
Holding people accountable, especially when they have ‘director’ in their function name, is something I support though.
But if the big boss constantly needs to fire his/her direct reports, then it’s probably time for him/her to go.
JackL
4th March 2024, 18:51
Agree. Like their investor Ryan Reynolds, Alpine have become a joke. Andretti should buy them.
Asd
4th March 2024, 13:53
“The new three-pillared structure with three technical directors, […], will bring better work and collaboration across […]”
Would the new 3-pillared structure not “bring better work and collaboration” with the 2 guys you fired though?
It looks like they simply have no talent at the top of their designing team, so all they can do is to mix up what they have left.
“Alpine has lost many of its top staff over the last 12 months.
Famin replaced Otmar Szafnauer […]
long-standing sporting director […] also chose to leave the team.
Chief technical officer […] also departed […],
and […] racing director […] left.”
The reality is that an F1 team can build a car only as good as the talent of its best engineers.
SteveP
4th March 2024, 16:15
The ultimate reality is that an F1 car will only go as fast as the weakest component in the package can manage.
So, if the designers of the Renault PU would like to select a door to use as an exit and allow someone more talented to design a new one, then at the next change of engine regulations the team can make a step forward.
Meantime, it’s all rather like re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
4th March 2024, 14:00
AlpineYou have 4 days and no budget to deliver us a car that beats Red Bull! We will settle for no less! (pointing to guillotine)
Technical Director Yeah, I’m going fishing today. See you all tomorrow.
Gasly and OconSmart man!
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
4th March 2024, 14:01
Oh, I should have said Lone Surviving Technical Director
floodo1 (@floodo1)
4th March 2024, 14:17
Not surprised given how bad Szafnauer alluded to their organization being
Shimks (@shimks)
4th March 2024, 14:23
I really liked Szafnauer. I hope he returns to the circus.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
4th March 2024, 14:42
Wait, he’s not in F1 anymore? I just assumed he’d been picked up by a team but I guess he would not settle for anything less than a position of team principal which complicates matters.
anon
4th March 2024, 16:40
@freelittlebirds Szafnauer claimed in his interview with Motor Sport magazine that he is not able to return to Formula 1 just yet due to the “gardening leave” clauses in his contract with Alpine. He apparently did approach the Andretti team about possibly being their team principle, but following the rejection of their bid, talk of Szafnauer’s future also seems to have gone quiet.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
4th March 2024, 18:00
how long was the gardening leave? I thought he was let go – does gardening leaves apply in those circumstances?
Simon
4th March 2024, 21:51
@freelittlebirds
Szafnauer left after Belgium last year.
Ted Kravitz (SkyF1 UK) had a short interview with him in Abu Dhabi, IIRC.
Doesn’t matter if the employee decides to leave or is “let go”, in some industries you cannot work for a competitor within a set time period after leaving.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
4th March 2024, 22:06
thanks!
yeah, I’d suspect I’d want that clause removed if I’m let go unless I’m fully compensated during that time by the team that’s asking me to do all the gardening…
Tristan
4th March 2024, 14:51
I wonder if it was the plan to leave which is why they left giving the team a clean slate to build from… Or rather this year’s car not hitting targets it was supposed to leading to their exit.
Aquila_GD
4th March 2024, 14:55
Alpine are a very unserious team and this their current interim prinicipal Bruno Famin sounds like he is just wasting their resources.
I think they should just sell the team if they are not interested in being in formula 1 anymore.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
4th March 2024, 14:59
Seems a tad harsh after only the first race of the season.
Were the big bosses expecting some kind of miracle from the first race?
I won’t be at all surprised if Renault don’t quit altogether soon. Their heart doesn’t seem to be in it.
Patrick (@paeschli)
4th March 2024, 15:05
They are behind Haas and Williams while they are supposed to rival Red Bull and Ferrari.
Sham (@sham)
4th March 2024, 15:47
I’m not sure that even running them over with the car they made would be too harsh.
At least they’d have a fair shot at outrunning it if they had decent training shoes.
SteveP
4th March 2024, 16:23
Definitely too harsh.
The car is faster than last year’s iteration, unfortunately it has last year’s PU and under the regulations in place that isn’t going to improve.
So, with the worst PU on the grid, where would expect them to be?
The people calling for Andretti to be on the grid 2024/2025 have one thing right, Andretti could bring value – by entering a less finished chassis also powered by Renault and thus ensuring Alpine were not the absolute back of the grid.
Leroy (@g-funk)
4th March 2024, 15:22
Yes. Because having multiple directors has always sparked so much collaboration in every iteration of this experiment in the past. All it does is factionalize the teams and create internal wars for limited resources.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
4th March 2024, 15:58
This supports my non-scientific theory that the cars with the worst paintjobs will also be the slowest.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
4th March 2024, 16:02
They reached the front of a reverse grid.
Kringle
4th March 2024, 16:31
Ahhh French teams never change.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
4th March 2024, 16:36
Well the upside is that this time they can’t go any lower.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th March 2024, 8:34
Mmm, they could always fail to get within the 107% laptime limit!
MichaelN
4th March 2024, 17:08
Makes sense, the result of their work is rather bad. But to which degree that will change if the circumstances in which they worked stay the same remains to be seen.
The Alpine team is a weird one. Up to now, they’ve been sort of hanging around that ’empty’ part of the grid behind the big teams but ahead of all the ‘adding so much value to F1’-backmarkers. But that never really changes…
Makes one wonder if they want to keep doing this after 2025? Where’s the plan, the investments?
Wouldn’t be surprised if they call it quits and sell the team.
Nick T.
7th March 2024, 23:21
Firing everyone at the top twice per season makes sense to you? I’ve never seen a team so dysfunctional, impatient, ego-driven or with such an outflow of talent. It’s extremely sad.
It’s no wonder they can’t keep big name drivers for more than about a day.
Neil (@neilosjames)
4th March 2024, 18:31
Sad to admit to being badly wrong about Alpine… a good few (four, maybe?) years ago, I thought that by now they’d be comfortably settled up near the front of the field with the other ‘works teams’. Not so much because of any magical talent I thought they might acquire, but because I thought Renault would have bailed if they weren’t.
The last thing I expected was for them to still be solidly midfield with no sign of either being a top team or of (that I know of) being on the lookout for an exit route.
Mooa42
4th March 2024, 23:10
This does appear to be the stripping of a team so new owners can come in and appoint all the staff they want, rather than having to fire people on long contracts. I hope that is the case, Renault never seemed to have their heart in it. Their junior support appears to be good, particularly for other teams to poach, but I don’t like either of their current F1 drivers.
If they aren’t stripping the team then in the not to distant future they’ll have a director of right rear wheel, a director of left rear wheel etc etc, sounds like lots of red tape and not a recipe for success.
BaKano (@bakano)
5th March 2024, 9:02
Even though my initial thought (and I replied in Twitter that) that Alpine (and its people) is playing musical chairs throughout multiple seasons, I think most if not all comments/replies here fail to notice that the 2 people that left are said to have resigned, not fired.
Harman had already decided (or gave his notice) to leave last month and De Beer decided (or gave his notice) in the week BEFORE the Bahrain GP.
What I guess is that they understood that the team is in shambles and there was no future, or no point, in hanging out much longer.
Dale
7th March 2024, 17:18
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,”
Because the changes made last year in getting rid of some of the top people was such a success Bruno??
What a clown. Only a fool believes getting rid of experienced highly rated people is the route to success.