'More faces' could leave Alpine amid F1 team crisis

Mar.5 (GMM) Alpine has confirmed the departure of its technical chiefs Matt Harman and Dirk de Beer, in the wake of the team’s woeful performance in Bahrain with the slowest-in-field 2024 car.

L’Equipe sports newspaper claims team boss Bruno Famin, however, is not blaming the duo for the embattled Formula 1 outfit’s competitive crisis, as he “takes responsibility for the technical choices” of the new car.

However, Harman and aerodynamics boss de Beer have left, and will be replaced by a promoted trio of new technical bosses – Joe Burnell, David Wheater and Ciaron Pilbeam.

And at Alpine’s two F1 bases in Enstone, UK, and Viry, France, new chief operating officers will now work on “the development of the factories behind the Formula 1 project”.

“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 confirmed in a statement.

It has been rumoured that Alpine’s woeful start to 2024, after a season of management upheaval last year, could lead to Renault pulling the plug on F1.

However, Kleine Zeiting correspondent Matthias Janisch doesn’t think so, given that with the sport’s new popularity and budget caps, teams are now “more than profitable”.

“The brand will probably stay in Formula 1,” he said. “Just a few more well-known faces could say goodbye in the coming months.”