Alpine continues to lose parts. After the recent farewells of technical director Matt Harman and manager Dirk de Beer, the Enstone team also loses another very important figure: Bob Bell.
The Northern Irish engineer was part of the important eras of the team based in England, making his debut in the mid-90s with Benetton, and then being one of the supporters of the world titles that arrived in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso as the tip diamond of the Renault team directed by Flavio Briatore. In fact, he held the role of technical director.
Bell also had the role of team principal after the “Crashgate” case in 2009 involving Nelson Piquet Jr. and managing director the following year.
Bell also had an important role as technical director at Mercedes, developing – among others – the amazing W05 which brought the Brackley team to its first title in 2014 with Lewis Hamilton, but also the Constructors' title in collaboration with Nico Rosberg, before make a move to Marussia and return to Renault from 2016.
For a few years now Bell had no longer been a permanent part of the team, but continued to work as a consultant. But now he is to be counted as yet another figure to leave the team over the last 12 months after Otmar Szafnauer, Alan Permane, Pat Fry, Matt Harman and Dirk de Beer.
Just this week Alpine announced a new technical structure with a triumvirate of technical directors, each with a different responsibility, following the idea put into practice by McLaren in recent years to restructure the team.
Joe Burnell has been appointed to take on the role of technical director related to engineering, David Wheater has become technical director of aerodynamics while Ciaron Pilbeam is the new technical director of vehicle performance. All three will report directly to Bruno Famin, team principal of the team following Szafnauer's departure last year.
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