Alpine: 'Shock' start to F1 season confirmed need for shakeup

Alpine's recent revamp of its technical structure was already in motion prior to the start of its 2024 campaign, but the team's shocking display in Bahrain only served to further underscore the imperative for change insists team boss Bruno Famin.

Ahead of last weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Alpine announced the departures from Enstone of both technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer.

However, it later came to light that Harman had already handed in his resignation before the start of pre-season testing.

Famin had anticipated a challenging debut for Alpine's 2024 car. However, the sight of both its cars occupying the back of the grid in Bahrain after qualifying was still a jolting surprise.

“That’s right that it was a shock, because we were really expecting a difficult start of the season — we knew this, and this is what we said during the launch of our car,” the Frenchman explained, quoted by RACER.

“But to be on the last row was a shock, to be honest. It just confirmed the need of changing in our team, and we made the change.”

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While acknowledging Alpine’s struggles, Famin offered a cautiously optimistic outlook, insisting that a long season lay ahead.

“The main issues are quite clear,” he said. “I think we have to remember also that we were at the first race of the season, which is very long.

“The car is totally new. We have developments coming. We will work hard in developing that car. But of course, understanding what the problems are is key to solving .

“We have a quite clear idea of what are the problems and we are really working hard.”

Regarding the revamp of its engineering department, Alpine revealed that it has opted for a “three pillared approach” similar to the configuration current exploited by McLaren

The French outfit has created three specialised technical roles and appointed the following individuals: Joe Burnell will fulfill the role of Technical Director-Performance, David Wheater will serve as Technical Director-Aerodynamics, and Ciaron Pilbeam has been appointed as Technical Director-Engineering.

Famin expressed confidence in the effectiveness of Alpine’s headquarters-based changes, citing also the team's improved trackside performance achieved in the latter part of 2023.

“We really want to bring to the factories what we have done on the track side by the end of last season,” he said.

“I mean changing the mindset, unleashing the creativity, and having three technical directors makes the organization much more horizontal, much less vertical.

“More activity, more agility, and really 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.”

Alpine’s changes were implemented for the long term, but Famin also expects the new technical structure to deliver shorter term benefits.

“Both, because we have a new car with A524. There is potential in this car,” he insisted.

“We have something coming for sure, but we also need to change our way of developing the car, maybe racing the car as well. We need to change our general approach; everything we will learn on A524 will be very helpful for developing the A526 for sure.”

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