Former Alpine veteran suffered ‘awful, devastating’ team exit

Former Alpine F1 sporting director Alan Permane has opened up on his “devastating” departure from the squad last year.

Permane had been part of the Enstone-based squad since 1989 when it ran under the Benetton moniker.

The British engineer rose through the ranks of the outfit as it shifted through various guises, including Renault and Lotus.

During the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix event, Alpine confirmed that Permane, along with then-team principal Otmar Szafnauer, would depart the team at the end of that weekend.

Having since taken up a sporting director position at RB, Permane spoke exclusively to RacingNews365 about the difficulties surrounding his exit from the team.

“It was devastating, of course,“ he said. “It was awful. Last summer and then in the autumn, they were tough times.

“Then I was talking to a few people. And this [RB] was really exciting and really good. It seemed like a really good project and I'm very lucky to be here.”

Permane conceded the wounds left from suddenly being ousted from Alpine only properly healed after he took a position at RB.

“[It took] a good couple of months, I’d say,” Permane outlined “ Until I'd fully committed to here. Once I came here, it was easy. Everything became an awful lot easier.

“I started watching the races again with a purpose, once that was done, which I guess was the beginning of November time, something like that.

“August was awful, September was bad. October, things were improving and then once this was done, there was no turning back.”

Alpine underwent a difficult period at the time of Permane's exit, with former CEO Laurent Rossi publicly criticising the team before being removed from his post just days prior to Permane.

When asked if Alpine had given a reason for being let go, Permane said: “No, they didn’t. I can't really comment on that side of things. They obviously had their reasons.”

Permane is one of the longest-serving chief engineers in F1, with his career spanning over three decades.

After building up a strong reputation, Permane revealed he received numerous messages of support from around the paddock after the news broke.

“One of the lovely things was I had a lovely amount of support from people in the paddock and that sort of thing,” he said.

“Many, many messages from inside Alpine, from everyone around, so that was nice to hear.”