Sanchez moves to Alpine after swift McLaren exit

Alpine has hired David Sanchez as its new executive technical director following his short stint at McLaren earlier this year.

Sanchez -- who used to work at Enstone after starting his Formula 1 career there back in 2005 -- had returned to McLaren from Ferrari at the start of 2024 but was quickly allowed to leave as he and the team felt his role didn’t match the initial expectations. Alpine moved quickly to sign the highly rated engineer in a senior role, appointing him to oversee the three technical directors that cover the performance, engineering and aerodynamics departments.

“I’m excited by this challenge at Alpine,” Sanchez said. “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.”

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Sanchez’s arrival comes after a tough start to the season for Alpine that has left the team at the bottom of the constructors’ championship. Former technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer both left the program earlier this year.

Team principal Bruno Famin says Sanchez will be tasked with identifying how to bring performance to the car more quickly, after Alpine slipped back in the pecking order this year.

“I am delighted to welcome David back to Enstone, where he started his career back in 2005,” Famin said. “This is a key appointment to ensure we are optimizing 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.”