F1 News – Alpine reshuffle technical department after senior members leave

Alpine have announced an organisational change in their technical department after their Technical Director and Head of Aerodynamics left the team.

Alpine has seen quite a few changes in senior figures of the past couple of years after failing to build on their 2022 season where they finished 4th in the Constructors’ Championship. Last year there were a number of high-level changes – CEO Laurent Rossi, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, Sporting Director Alan Permane and Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry all departed the team.

The 2024 season opener in Bahrain was one to forget for the team with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly sharing the back row on the grid and only finishing P17 and P18 ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas who’d suffered a 52 second pit stop due to a wheel nut issue, and the Williams of Logan Sargeant, who fell to the back after a steering wheel issue saw him slide off track.

Today, it was announced that Technical Director Matt Harman and Head of Aerodynamics Dirk de Beer had left the team and Alpine would be restructuring to split the Technical Director role into three and will now have Joe Burnell as Technical Director (Engineering), David Wheater as Technical Director (Aerodynamics) and Ciaron Pilbeam as Technical Director (Performance).

The three will report to Bruno Famin, VP of Alpine who was confirmed as Team Principal earlier this year after filling the role on an interim basis after Szafnauer was fired during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend last year.

“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,” Famin 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.”

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