AlphaTauri now considering hiring 56-year-old who thinks Daniel Ricciardo is on a ‘different’ level

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AlphaTauri are hoping to benefit from the exodus at Alpine last season by hiring former sporting director Alan Permane and the 56-year-old will be delighted to be reunited with Daniel Ricciardo.

Alpine dramatically parted ways with Permane, team principal Otmar Szafnauer and Pat Fry ahead of the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.

Now, as reported by the Independent and others, Alan Permane looks set for a return to the grid.

Normally, the winter break in Formula 1 contains plenty of driver movements with teams adapting to their new line-ups.

However, this year has been the total opposite, with more movement on the pit wall than on the grid.

Haas have released team principal Guenther Steiner, while McLaren hired Rob Marshall from Red Bull and David Sanchez from Ferrari.

AlphaTauri is another team where there’s been plenty of chance in the past few months after Franz Tost left the team.

He’s been replaced by former Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies, while Peter Bayer has joined the team as CEO.

Alan Permane may now come in and complement AlphaTauri’s management structure and that could see a reunion with Daniel Ricciardo.

The pair worked together at Renault before the Australian departed the team for McLaren.

At the time, Permane made it clear that the 34-year-old was going to be a huge loss.

Ricciardo and Permane could be reunited at AlphaTauri

Speaking back in 2020 about Ricciardo’s impending departure, Permane said: “Yeah, very sad, honestly.

“There’s not many of them on the current grid, and I am only speaking from what I see, the same as everyone else sees – OK I see a bit more of Daniel – but there’s him, there’s Lewis [Hamilton], there’s Charles [Leclerc], and there’s Max [Verstappen].”

“And I think those four are at different levels.

“No disrespect to Esteban [Ocon], but he’s just that one-tenth, half a tenth behind, and where we are, that can be a lifetime.

“And he’s striving hard to close that gap and learning from Daniel where he can and how he acts and how he sees what he’s done with his team…

“[I’ll be] Very sad, honestly, he’s very cool. In and out of the car, you don’t meet many that are pretty much spot on, both ways. And he’s done a great job in building a very strong team around him in terms of engineering and his mechanics, his people in the garage.

“I tell him every week, it’s not too late to change his mind. Seriously I do, and of course, it’s tongue in cheek and I know he can’t change his mind… but who knows, if this had been a normal season and people weren’t making their minds up before they’d even turned a wheel, who knows where we’d be now?”

Permane has a very high regard for Ricciardo and will want him to stay at AlphaTauri for as long as possible.

That might not be possible with the 34-year-old being considered by Red Bull as a potential replacement for Sergio Perez.

The Frenchman would be gutted to see Ricciardo leave him for a second time just as he arrives.

However, it looks like a good move to bring him in and help the Australian and Yuki Tsunoda get the most out of their new cars.