After a disappointing start to the 2024 season, Alpine has continued to evolve its technical structure after appointing David Sanchez as executive technical director at the start of the year.
Sanchez, who left McLaren just three months after joining the British team in January, had been appointed by Alpine to lead a new three-pronged technical structure established by team principal Bruno Famin.
This followed the resignations of Matt Harman and Dirk de Beer, as the A524 produced for this season had started out uncompetitive and overweight. The situation was improved by a reshuffle of a triad of technical directors, with Joe Burnell taking on the role of engineering director, David Wheater as aerodynamics director and Ciaron Pilbeam as performance director.
When Sanchez became available, the three technical directors reported to him, and the Frenchman now reported to Famin.
While the arrival of a new technical director weeks after a reorganisation might suggest that more big changes are coming, Sanchez said he was largely satisfied with the team he encountered when he arrived at Alpine.
“They are very good. There is everything you need to make a competitive car. So I was very happy when I joined the team,” he revealed at Silverstone, during his first car presentation session for Alpine.
“Coming from the outside, there were obviously some things that I tended to have a personal opinion on. There was a plan in place, we reviewed it and changed some things. The car definitely needs a big push for updates. We are working on it and so far it is going quite well.”
“This structure is becoming more and more the norm. There are big teams, so you need a lot of structure and it certainly seems to be working at the moment. Last year we saw that McLaren was able to make big steps forward during the season.”
Sanchez also says the team is starting to understand its A524 better, noting that a concerted effort to reduce weight is a key factor. The car was speculated to be around 10kg overweight, but the mass was eliminated over the course of the first few races to ensure the car became more competitive.
Alpine scored its first point of the season in Miami, and added further points in races including Monaco and Austria, two of which were double points. The team failed to finish higher than ninth, but its recent performances have generally improved.
Sanchez says the car now needs simple updates; the focus on weight reduction has largely eliminated performance-related upgrades for now.
“We are learning more about the car and at each race we try to get the most out of it. This has been a good trend in the last few races. We have learned a lot in developing the upgrades and we should have new parts arriving during the summer holidays,” Sanchez said.
David Sanchez, Alpine Executive Technical Director
Photo by: Alpine
“There’s been quite a bit of weight taken off the car, which is something that can’t be underestimated. And then, from a chassis point of view, a lot, from a set-up point of view, to get the drivers comfortable with the balance and try to get the most out of the car.”
“Some of the updates were already planned. Now we have many more to come, many ideas. Now we try to ride as fast as possible. I think it’s a bit of a lack of development. We need more downforce. We need a bit of everything, especially downforce.”
“Obviously, the easiest way to get downforce is to lower the car. But do it without causing problems. That’s one of the limitations, but I think everyone is fighting for that. Lowering the car is the easiest way to get downforce. And there’s a board. There are some rules on skates that we have to pay attention to. But in terms of development, I think the direction is very clear at the moment.”
As well as focusing on catching up on development – and not too late as the team has been eclipsed by Haas in the fight for seventh place in the constructors’ championship – Alpine has made other acquisitions.
Two of them are Red Bull recruits: Michael Broadhurst has become chief aerodynamicist, while Vin Dhanani has been appointed head of vehicle performance. Meanwhile, Jacopo Fantoni has left Ferrari to become deputy chief engineer, adding know-how from other top teams.
While Sanchez is prioritising development in 2024, hoping the team can “come out of the summer break” in a similar position to where McLaren managed to be last year with its heady upgrade progress, he has already identified areas to target for 2025, the final year of the current regulations.
“I think we are developing the weak points for now. This year, during the season, there is a lot of focus on aerodynamics and for next year’s car, when we review the hardware, we will try to focus on radically changing some aspects of the car and this should be another step forward,” he explained.
“For next year there will be some conceptual changes, especially regarding the suspension. For this year we are focusing a bit on aerodynamics.”
“I wouldn’t say there will be big conceptual changes, because when you look at the car it will be similar, but when you look at the aerodynamic characteristics, they will tend to be, some different, some just more powerful for performance.”
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