Written by Gabriel Tsui, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Amidst yet another major technical rehaul of Alpine’s technical team, Bruno Famin has stepped down from his role of Team Principal to focus on other Alpine projects, including the Le Mans program and the Dakar Rally.
Famin is the third high-ranking member to leave the team after former technical director Matt Harman and former head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer stepped down during a difficult start to the 2024 season.
The team has been facing a lot of problems ever since their rebranding to Alpine, but some of them were passed down from the previous generations. The constant revolving doors of key leading figures within the team certainly does not instil confidence within the team, with the next team principal to be the fourth since 2021.
To end this endless cycle of technical directors and team principals, Alpine must bring in someone that has the ability to put the team back on the right track — and for that to happen, this someone must learn from Alpine’s past mistakes. For that, we must go back to the start of the downfall.
Their downfall started from the Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri debacle, when two star drivers left the team with no compensation, a debacle displaying the appalling management skills of the top figures within the company.
The team had no other choice but to go out into the free agent market and search for another driver, and they settled on Pierre Gasly, a Frenchman who had impressive performances in an AlphaTauri car woefully out of depth.
However, the signing of Gasly was met with huge question marks around team chemistry, as Gasly and Esteban Ocon, the other Alpine driver, had a broken relationship from previous encounters during their karting days.
The pair seemingly made amends and vowed to work in harmony for the success of the team. However, throughout the 2024 season, the duo were riddled with moments such as the Imola FP3, or the infamous Monaco incident that saw their relationship deteriorate yet again.
This was one of the many internal conflicts Famin failed to mediate during his tenure as team principal, with another prominent conflict within the team being the rift between the French members of the team in Viry and their British counterparts in Enstone. The tensions led to the sides having to live in different hotels and sit at different tables in the paddock.
Their on-track performance hasn’t been up to expectations either, with reports a year ago showing that the engine performance was 20-33 hp behind other competitors. In a previous analysis piece, the telemetry graphs showed that the Alpine were losing on long straights horribly, with their engine unable to break through 11000 rpm at eighth gear.
Debates raged whether that was actually the engine’s inability to achieve the desired power or the Alpine engineers limited the engine’s performance to protect the engine from the wear and tear, but regardless of the reason, the outcome was an engine that was uncompetitive.
Fast forward to present time, we compared the telemetry on Alpine against their competitors such as Aston Martin and VCARB in Montréal and Miami.
Comparing lap times set in similar time (To keep variables such as track temperature, tyre compound, and traffic in mostly similar conditions), it is clear that while they still have advantage in braking zones and high speed corners, they simply could not match up in acceleration when compared to their midfield counterparts.
All that to say: Bruno Famin did not, mostly should have, but rather could not improve the team. His lack of experience in managing a large crew was woefully obvious, and his inability to keep his drivers in check led to an in-team rivalry still raging on to this day.
On the other hand, the lack of support from the higher ups meant that he was left all alone to deal with a horrible situation, setting him up for failure.
But now, the question is as simple as this: Now what? What’s next for Alpine?
The answer to that question is a rebuild. Championship contending teams didn’t start off great, case in point, McLaren. They had a horrible start in 2023, but look at the progress they made ever since, slowly building to success, until now, having undoubtedly one of, if not the best car on the grid. So what would this rebuild for Alpine look like?
All rebuilds start with a leading figure, and the search for a team principal will be the key. After the announcement of Famin stepping down, there were rumours of Oliver Oakes, the current Hitech GP team boss, taking over as the leader of the team.
Oakes was once a part of the infamous Red Bull Junior Team, after ending his racing career in 2011, he engaged in managing roles and soon joined Hitech GP in 2015.
After this, they must find a driver to pair alongside Gasly in the long term. The most sensible choice would be going with Jack Doohan, the Alpine reserve driver. He joined the Alpine Driver Academy in 2022, taking sixth in the Formula 2 championship. In 2023, he made strides in development, finishing third in the standings.
Wild card options such as Victor Martins, Valterri Bottas or Carlos Sainz are all viable options, but Doohan would be the best option, given his multiple practice sessions with the team and his familiarity with the Alpine system.
There are also reports of Alpine leaving the engine manufacturer scene, in a plan to reallocate resources to other projects. Reports from multiple media outlets also mentioned an engine deal with Mercedes starting from 2026, or even as early as 2025.
Given the huge gulf between the Alpine and other manufacturers, alongside cost considerations, a move away from manufacturing their own engine would be the most practical.
However, the most important factor for the next team principal to succeed is the time to build the culture around the team. Otmar Szafnauer was only given 18 months of time to work with the team, which obviously isn’t enough time to build a winning culture around the team.
Concluding everything said above, Alpine has been failing due to mismanagement and extremely poor decision making across levels. The poor results and poor chemistry amongst team members are major evidence of the above problems.
Whoever comes in next will have the work cut out for them. They will have to decide upon the second driver, rebuild a team culture within Alpine, and it won’t be easy.
How they handle the rebuild on both the technical and the sporting portions of the team will be key to their future success, and it will be a painful rebuild. But patience, something that has been lacking within the French side, will be required .
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