Difficult Start and ‘Shock’ of Being Last Proved Tech Reshuffle was Right Move – Famin

Bruno Famin, the Team Principal of the BWT Alpine F1 Team, says the shock of starting the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season at the back of the pack has confirmed that the decision to overhaul their technical department was the right move.

Alpine started 2024 with a seemingly overweight and underperforming A524, and it was not long before technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer both resigned from their posts, and were replaced by a trio of technical directors that were broken up between aerodynamics, engineering and performance.

After two races fighting at or near the back of the pack – they qualified nineteenth and twentieth on the grid in the Bahrain Grand Prix, Famin says the need for change has been proven to be the right move as they bid to drag themselves up the field.

“It was a shock because we were really expecting a difficult start of the season, we knew this, and this is what we said during the launch of our car,” Famin is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. 

“But to be on the last row in the qualifying was a shock, to be honest. And it just confirmed the need of changing in our team, and we made the change.”

“We really want to bring to the factories what we have done trackside by the end of the last season. I mean, changing the mindset, unleashing the creativity and having three technical directors makes the organisation much more horizontal, much less vertical.

“More activity, more agility, and really the motto is really to develop our people.”

Famin says he expects developments to come this year to improve the performance of the A524, but it is important that they understand what the problems are before searching for a solution.  Neither Esteban Ocon nor Pierre Gasly have escaped Q1 in Qualifying in the opening two races, and it is important for the team to improve.

“The car is totally new,” added Famin. “We have developments coming.  Of course, understanding what are the problems is key to solve it. And we have a quite clear idea of what are the problems and we are really working hard.

“There is potential in this car. We have something coming for sure, but we also need to change our way of developing the car, maybe racing the car as well.

“We need to change really our approach, our general approach on everything.”

On a Normal Circuit ‘we are still behind’ – Esteban Ocon

For Ocon, despite being involved in the battle behind Kevin Magnussen in Saudi Arabia, he admitted that it was only opportunism that allowed him to be in the mix, and on a normal circuit and without unusual defensive driving from a rival, he knows he would not have been there.

Ocon was able to stay out of trouble in Jeddah, and ended the day down in thirteenth, but once Magnussen was allowed to run at full pace, he dropped significantly away from the Dane and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon, and ultimately out of contention for the top ten.

“I think an opportunistic race, that’s how we should call it,” Ocon is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “I think we were up to P10 at some point virtually, because Kevin had the penalty.

“We navigated our way through and fought our way through and there were a lot of battles. But in the end it was just not enough. We were up to a point that we couldn’t keep. Basically we were faster than what the car could do in the end, and we went backwards towards the end.

“So it’s very clear what we need to improve for the next races now. Racing more with the other guys it was easier to spot than in Bahrain. We’re going to keep digging, keep pushing, and I’m going to be in the factory [this week], so I’m going to keep pushing to find solutions with the guys.

“I couldn’t really fight.  It’s quite a big statement to say that we could fight. We managed to get in front of them somehow, but on a normal circuit, I think, with normal situations, and no fighting, we are still behind.”

‘Hopefully they can fix things quickly’ – Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso, who spent three spells at the team in various guises, hopes that his former team can bounce back from their poor start and fix their performance issues.

Alonso, who left the team to join the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team ahead of the 2023 season after the retirement of Sebastian Vettel, says the atmosphere within the outfit while he was there was great, and maybe since his departure he has questioned whether that atmosphere has changed.

The results have also dropped away, particularly in 2024, and he hopes for Alpine that they can recover and return to contending for points.

“Well it is difficult to comment from the outside, but it is a team I love and gave me a lot of great things in my career,” Alonso is quoted as saying by RacingNews365.  “So I hope that they can get better.

“Maybe when I was there, obviously the team was maybe different, it was a great atmosphere and we had good performance as well, especially in 2022.

“We were within the top five or six in every race, so it is a little bit surprising to see the current results, but hopefully they can fix things quickly.”