Alpine will not accelerate the technical rebuild with the arrival of a famous technician. Flavio Briatore emphasizes that the F1 team is deliberately not looking for a well-known technical leader, but mainly for a strong group that can achieve results together. According to the Alpine boss, Enstone has already proven in the past that it can develop top technical talent itself.
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Briatore returned to Alpine in 2024 as an executive advisor and became de facto team principal after Oliver Oakes left in 2025. Since then, the technical structure has been further shaped with, among others, former Ferrari and McLaren boss David Sanchez as technical director, while Dave Greenwood holds the role of race director. Alpine also made the switch from Renault to Mercedes engines, with the team occupying sixth place in the constructors’ championship at the time of the summer break.
‘When I joined Alpine, the situation was quite bad’
According to Briatore, the results prove that Alpine is fundamentally getting stronger, but there is still a lot of work to be done to really compete for the top positions. He seeks those improvements within the team’s own technical branch. “We now have the engine, now we need to improve the quality of our own technology,” he responded to the press before the summer break. “When I joined Alpine, the situation was quite bad; we lost many people and there were too many changes, with different management every year. There was absolutely no consistency.”
“Step by step, you have to rebuild the strong technical base and consistency to improve,” Briatore explained. “We need major improvements on the technical side, but at the same time, you must not get stuck on one component. If you want to win, you have to improve everything.” Briatore states that Alpine is indeed looking for reinforcements, but not for someone who is hired solely because of their reputation. “We need more than someone with a big name; name recognition does not guarantee good results.”
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‘Alpine has already created monstrous top figures’
According to Briatore, Enstone has also often proven that a strong technical structure can ultimately produce big names. “We have created monstrous top figures in Ross Brawn, Bob Bell, Pat Symonds, and James Allison,” he added. These are all names who started at Benetton or Renault – previous incarnations of the current Alpine team. “That takes time,” Briatore admitted. “Not ten years, but two or three. That was also true for Benetton and Renault at the time.”
Streamlining Alpine has, by the way, cost many jobs, the Italian honestly admitted. “When I came here, the team consisted of 1300 people, and now we are down to 900. So if you talk about the company structure, there is definitely a process going on. It is very painful at first, but now we see where we are heading.”
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