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F1 fans recently reacted to Alpine's major personnel structure changes after their technical director, Matt Harman, and head of aerodynamics, Dirk de Beer, left the team.
Alpine has been on a downslide in performance ever since 2022. In the 2024 F1 season, they are one of the slowest teams on the grid. Before Matt Harman and Dirk de Beer's departure, the French team underwent major changes at the senior level, with CEO Laurent Rossi, team principal Otmar Szafnauer, and sporting director Alan Permane all departing from the team in 2023.
In an official statement, team principal Bruno Famin stated that the reason behind these organizational changes was the recent dip in performance.
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“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,” said Famin.
He further explained that the team would have a new structure with three team principals, Joe Burnell in engineering, David Wheater in aerodynamics, and Ciaron Pilbeam in performance departments.
“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," he added.
After the Enstone-based team announced the resignation of their technical staff and brought about a structural change, many F1 fans reacted to the team's decline in F1. One of the fans stated how painful it must be to be Alpine's follower at the moment.
"We make fun of the Tifosi all the time, but being an Alpine fan is a different kind of pain," a fan wrote.
Here are some of the reactions:
Another fan wrote that Matt Harman and Dirk de Beer left the team after creating one of the slowest cars on the 2024 F1 grid, the A524.
"They leave after creating one of the worst cars," another fan exclaimed
Esteban Ocon gave an uplifting message after Alpine's poor performance at the 2024 Bahrain GP
After Alpine had a horrendous start to the 2024 F1 season in Bahrain, Esteban Ocon gave an uplifting message to the team on the team radio.
After Ocon finished P17 and his teammate Pierre Gasly ended in P18, the former came to the radio and said:
"Only Round 1. We keep going and we keep pushing. There is a race tomorrow as well. I got faith in you guys."
Alpine is currently on the back foot since they created a brand new platform for the new car. Hence, they are still gathering data from the machine while competing with the rest of the grid. It was reported that the car could unlock its performance after mid-season with the help of upgrades.
