Resignations Of Technical Director And Head Of Aero Were Reportedly Handed In At Alpine

According to recent reports, the technical director, Matt Harman, and the head of aero, Dirk de Beer, have resigned ahead of the first race.

The only French team on the grid approached the 2024 season with great expectations after failing in 2023. The team stated they changed every single part of the car and that the only thing that stayed the same was the steering wheel.

In 2023, Alpine was in sixth place in no man's land. They were far ahead of the teams behind but also far behind the top five teams in front. The goal in 2023 was to catch up with the top five.

However, it must have been clear to Alpine that they were in great trouble from the first time they put their car on the track at Bahrain International Circuit. Reports during testing suggested the car wasn't working at all.

All F1 teams use lower engine modes to protect their power units and to hide their real pace during the pre-season testing and free practice sessions ahead of the qualifying and Grand Prix race.

Why is this important? Esteban Ocon, who put in the best lap time during the qualification, achieved only 1:30.793. This time was exceeded by five drivers already during the pre-season testing and four more drivers during FP sessions.

Alpine must have been watching the timing sheets, knowing they would be last when other teams set better times (than they ever could) with lower engine modes and filled-up gas tanks.

Bahrain Grand Prix then confirmed their fears as Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly qualified in P19 and P20. The two drivers then finished the Grand Prix race in P17 and P18 - a lap down on the race leader, Max Verstappen.

According to motorsport.com, technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer resigned a month before the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Taking this information into consideration, The French team probably knew they weren't in a good position even before launching their car. The question now is, can they come back throughout the season?