Alpine have promoted ‘very well regarded’ director after awful start in Bahrain

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Alpine have promoted a trio of employees to director level after the resignations of Matt Harman and Dirk de Beer, including David Wheater.

The French manufacturer were the slowest team on track in Bahrain, starting on the back row of the grid and failing to come close to challenging for points.

Speaking on The Race Podcast, Ben Anderson and Edd Straw have been discussing who has been promoted and the new roles they’ll play within the team.

‘Well regarded’ Wheater promoted by Alpine

Alpine have been on a slippery slope ever since they finished fourth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2022.

They lost Fernando Alonso to an Aston Martin team who at the time were further down the pecking order.

However, the Spaniard knew something no one else did and recorded eight podiums last season after the move.

Alpine looked to promote Oscar Piastri from their academy to replace him, only for the Australian to reject the move and join McLaren instead.

Pierre Gasly was a fine replacement, but the car was stuck in no man’s land in 2023, struggling to challenge the top five teams, but noticeably quicker than the rest of the grid.

Unfortunately, 2024 has started poorly, with the team needing to take steps backwards to fix some nagging issues and as a result, they’ve fallen behind bottom team Haas.

Alpine have already acted and promoted several staff members from within including David Wheater.

The former Williams employee has a very good reputation within the sport but has a big challenge ahead of him to help lift the French team off the bottom of the championship standings.

Alpine have a mountain to climb this season

Speaking about the changes at Alpine, Anderson said: “On the chassis side, instead of Matt Harman as a traditional technical director and then head of aero to be reporting into him, you’ve got three internal promotions that will all report to Bruno [Famin].

“So, there’s a guy called Joe Burnell, who’s been appointed technical director for engineering, that’s not a name that’s familiar to me, so he’s a new guy as far as I’m concerned.

“David Wheater will be technical director for aerodynamics, I think he was at Williams before.”

His colleague Edd Straw added: “He’s very well regarded, David Wheater as well.”

Anderson replied: “He’s responsible for aerodynamics now so I guess he’s effectively replacing [Dirk] De Beer.

“And then Ciaron Pilbean who’s a long-serving member of the team right, and he’s going to be technical director for performance which I presume is more focused on on-track engineering.”

Alpine will be hoping the promoted trio of Burnell, Wheater and Pilbean can help them quickly catch up to the rest of the field.

Unfortunately, that’s quite unlikely given the time it typically takes to deliver meaningful upgrades.

The team instead may start to turn their attention to the 2026 season when regulations drastically change.

It could be a make-or-break year for Alpine as Renault will eventually lose patience if they fail to deliver.