Former engineer at Ferrari, David Sanchez joined the team Formula 1 of Alpine as executive technical director, following his departure from McLaren after just three months in his role.
Sanchez will report directly to the team leader Bruno Famin in his new role and will oversee the new three-pillar technical structure implemented across the Enstone team.
This means that the technical directors for each pillar: Ciaron Pilbeam for performance, Joe Burnell for engineering and David Wheater for aerodynamics, will report to Sanchez.
“I am delighted to welcome David back to Enstone, where he began his career in 2005. This is a key appointment to ensure we are optimizing everything we do as a team and focusing on the right areas of performance,” said Famin.
“It is clear that the car’s performance and development path have not progressed at a sufficient pace in relation to our ambitions as a team. We look forward to welcoming David and working hard together to achieve ultimate success.”
Sanchez added: “I’m excited about this challenge at Alpine. I’m looking forward to working again at Enstone, the place where I started my Formula 1 career.
“This team has always had a lot of fantastic people involved and there is clearly a lot of potential to unlock. We have a big task ahead of us to improve performance on the track and it is this type of challenge that motivates me.
“I am very ready to get started and look forward to working again with the Enstone-Viry technical teams with the sole aim of bringing back regular success to this great team.”
Alpine’s move to a three-pronged technical formation, inspired by McLaren’s setup, came after former technical chief Matt Harman and aerodynamicist Dirk de Beer left the team following the launch of this year’s A524 chassis.
Although the team chose to pursue a new design concept with its new car, it emerged in pre-season testing overweight and underperforming, resulting in poor results in the first five races.
