Alpine’s unsettled 12 months have continued with the announcement that Technical Director Matt Harman and head of Aerodynamics Dirk de Beer have left the team, with Alpine announcing a subsequent technical re-shuffle.
Following Harman and De Beer’s departures, Alpine will move to a structure of having a trio of Technical Directors, with Joe Burnell as Technical Director (Engineering), David Wheater as Technical Director (Aerodynamics) and Ciaron Pilbeam as Technical Director (Performance).
Sounds like too many cheifs and not enough Indians.
Do any other teams have a technical director structure like this?
McLaren does. Technically, they have had it since last year but it’s in full effect as of this season. They have Peter Prodromou as Technical Director, Aerodynamics; David Sanchez as Technical Director, Car Concept & Performance; and Rob Marshall as Technical Director, Engineering & Design. There’s also Neil Houldey as Deputy Technical Director, Engineering and Design.
That’s interesting. So this year’s car was designed under that structure? Hopefully the strategy works out for Alpine.
On paper yes but David Sánchez and Rob Marshall have only just begun at McLaren. The evolutions of the MCL38 and the MCL39 will be the first to be fully developed under this structure. My guess is this year’s car was designed by Peter Prodromou.