Alpine gets hit with another setback following one more key departure from the team. Several key figures have left them over the last few months, and according to F1’s official website, Bob Bell, who was with Alpine in an advisory role, joins the list. Bell will leave the Enstone-based outfit to partner up with Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin.
| Bob Bell has left an advisory role at Alpine to join Aston Martin as executive director pic.twitter.com/q9zomGXMpN
— Aston Martin Formula 1 News (@AMF1News) March 6, 2024
Bell will now be serving the role of Executive Director at Aston Martin. He will be responsible for all the Technical, Engineering, and Performance related functions across the team. Talking about the move, Bell said that the team’s progress over the last few years impressed him a lot. Additionally, the ambition of the Aston Martin project was highly motivating for Bell.
“The scale and ambition of this project is highly motivating. I am a racer, and I see the hunger and determination powering this team. I look forward to playing my part with Mike [Krack] and the rest of the team.”
Moving to Aston Martin, Bell will team up with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. However, it won’t be the first time Bell and Alonso work together. Bell was the Technical Director at Renault when Alonso won the world championships in 2005 and 2006. With the reunion, Aston Martin looks to have taken yet another step towards trying to improve their team and march towards challenging the ‘big three’ of F1.
As for Alpine, things seem to be going from bad to worse. In addition to Bell’s departure, two more figures left Alpine after a disastrous point-less season opener at the Bahrain GP last weekend.
Tough times continue to disrupt operations at Alpine
Before Bell proceeded towards the exit door, a couple of other personnel had already departed. The first one was Technical Director Matt Harman, and the second was Head of Aerodynamics Dirk de Beer. Both key figures resigned after a terrible season opener in Bahrain. They will now be replaced by a new structure of team under Bruno Famin. These departures acted as the first set to head out in 2024, continuing a trend of high-level departures that began in 2023.
Former Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer has delivered a damning assessment of the management of the team.
Szafnauer told Viaplay NL: “The stopwatch doesn’t lie and it didn’t look very competitive.
“I do understand that. There’s a part of me that… it’s justified that… pic.twitter.com/AvE0vWIJTM
— MrDeepak (@X_MrDeepak) March 2, 2024
CEO Laurent Rossi and Sporting Director Alan Permane left the team after last year’s Belgian GP. Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry and Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer were the next to follow. Times have been turbulent within the Alpine outfit as they try to stabilize themselves and the performance department has struggled the most. This was visible at the season opener in Bahrain.
Both their cars failed to make it past Q1 and were easily the slowest on the grid. Had it not been for the technical shortcomings of Logan Sargeant and Valtteri Bottas’ cars, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly would have likely finished P19 and P20.
