F1 team announce DOUBLE resignation after Bahrain disaster

F1, flag, 2023, generic — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 team announce DOUBLE resignation after Bahrain disaster

The team struggled during the Bahrain Grand Prix

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Wednesday 6 March 2024 05:57

Two key Alpine figures have resigned after just a single race of the season, with the team suffering a dramatic slide down the rankings.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly qualified 19th and 20th in Bahrain, progressing to 17th and 18th by the end of the race thanks to misfortune suffered by Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant.

Having struggled in 2023, the team had been hoping to push closer towards the top five constructors in 2024, but instead appeared to be the slowest team of all at the Bahrain International Circuit.

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Now, they are in the process of restructuring their design department, after technical director Matt Harman resigned from his role in the aftermath of Saturday's race, as well as head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer.

Alpine's new challenger looked dreadfully slow in Bahrain

Bruno Famin has had to restructure the team so early into the season

Esteban Ocon had already given a rather pessimistic look on the team's season, before 2024 had even kicked off

Alpine lose more key figures

That seems like a long time ago now, with podiums presumably going to be even harder to come by in this mammoth season, if their performance in Bahrain is a true representative for the entire season.

Esteban Ocon had already started the season off on a pessimistic note before the launch of their 2024 car, stating that the simulators showed them to be 'slow'.

Now, Harman and De Beer have decided to depart their roles following the awful start to the season, and will be replaced by three different personnel.

Ciaron Pilbeam has been promoted from head of race engineering to technical director, engineering will be led by Joe Burnell and aerodynamics by David Wheater.

New team principal Bruno Famin said in a statement: "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 race track."

Alpine Esteban Ocon Pierre Gasly Bahrain International Circuit