The Alpine F1 Team appoints David Sanchez as Executive Technical Director to revamp their technical team and enhance car performance.
The Alpine F1 Team has announced the hiring of David Sanchez as their new Executive Technical Director. Sanchez, a seasoned Formula 1 engineer with past stints at Ferrari and most recently a short time with McLaren coming to an abrupt end, returns to Enstone where he began his F1 career.
Alpine F1 Team has brought on board David Sanchez as its new Executive Technical Director. This appointment comes amid a season faced with technical challenges and underperformance, putting Sanchez at the helm of Alpine’s ambitious technical refresh.
Sanchez, who briefly served at McLaren after his shocking exit about a month ago and spent significant years at Ferrari, returns to the Enstone-based squad where his Formula 1 journey began in 2005. He now steps into a pivotal role directly reporting to Team Principal Bruno Famin and overseeing Alpine’s newly established three-pillar technical framework. This structure includes Ciaron Pilbeam (Performance), Joe Burnell (Engineering), and David Wheater (Aerodynamics), who will each head one of the pillars and report directly to Sanchez.
Famin commented on Sanchez’s return, as quoted by Autosport:
“I am delighted to welcome David back to Enstone, where he started his career back in 2005. This is a key appointment to ensure we are optimising everything we do as a team and focusing on the right performance areas.
“It is clear that the performance of the car and development path has not moved at a sufficient pace relative to our ambitions as a team. We look forward to welcoming David and working hard together to achieve the ultimate success.”
The technical restructuring at Alpine, mirroring a similar setup to that of McLaren’s, comes at a time when the team has encountered significant setbacks with its A524 chassis. The car has struggled with weight issues and lackluster performance in the first five races of the season, which underlines the urgency of adapting and refining their technical operations.
David Sanchez expressed his enthusiasm about his second tenure at Enstone and the challenges it brings.
“I’m excited by this challenge at Alpine. I’m looking forward to working at Enstone again, the place where I started my Formula 1 career.
“This team has always had so many fantastic people involved and there is clearly so much potential to unlock. We have a big task ahead to improve on-track performance and it is this type of challenge that motivates me.
“I’m very much ready to begin and look forward to working with the Enstone-Viry technical teams again with the sole aim of bringing regular success back to this great team.”