Alpine have made a series of organisational changes after Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were off the pace at Saturday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, with technical director Matt Harman departing.
Head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer has joined Harman in resigning after Ocon and Gasly finished 17th and 18th respectively in the first race of the 2024 Formula One season.
Alpine finished sixth in the constructors’ standings last year, dropping from fourth in 2022 as they were leapfrogged by McLaren and Aston Martin after Fernando Alonso left following two seasons with the team.
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Their unexpected drop-off led to team principal Otmar Szafnauer being sacked last summer, with Bruno Famin taking on the role alongside his responsibilities as Alpine’s vice president of motorsport.
On Monday, the team announced the creation of three specialised roles to replace Harman’s position as technical director.
Joe Burnell will become technical director of engineering, David Wheater has been made technical director of aerodynamics and Ciaron Pilbeam will be technical director of performance.
BWT Alpine F1 Team announces organisational changes across its technical teams, with a new three-pillared approach.
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) March 4, 2024
In a statement, Famin said: “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.
“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 racetrack.
“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.”
