At Maranello, Fantoni worked alongside David Sanchez, who joined Alpine in May as executive technical director.
Sanchez is being credited by insiders as playing a large role in Alpine’s revival after a difficult start to this season.
Sanchez, who joined Alpine after leaving a new role at McLaren after just three months this year, is said to have been able to quickly instigate new ways of operating the car to increase its performance.
In addition to a programme of weight loss, which has brought the car down to the minimum weight limit, this has led to a significant change in fortunes.
Alpine started the season as the slowest team on the grid but have begun to consistently qualify at the back of the top 10, scoring points in each of the last four races.
Signing Sanchez was a significant move after months of turmoil dating back to last summer, when they sacked their chief executive officer Laurent Rossi, team principal Otmar Szafnauer, sporting director Alan Permane and operations director Rob White – and lost their chief technical officer Pat Fry, technical director Matt Harman, head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer and engineering consultant Bob Bell.
Alpine have also recruited Flavio Briatore, their former team principal when they were known as Benetton and Renault, as executive advisor.
As part of his role, Briatore is in charge of all recruitment and reports directly to Renault chief executive officer Luca de Meo, not team principal Bruno Famin.
Alpine are in the middle of a restructuring programme aimed at stopping what had become an alarming slump, and returning the team to competitiveness.
De Meo is even considering ditching Renault’s F1 engine programme before the new rules are introduced in 2026 and becoming a customer team.
Talks with Mercedes on that front have already taken place, although a final decision is said not to have been taken.
2024-07-03 10:31:28
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