Alpine grapple to fight out of the back

A weekend away from the track doesn’t always mean a weekend off for Formula 1, as Alpine grapples to come to terms with the A524 that doesn’t appear to be as “aggressive” as Alpine’s technical director, Matt Harman, has described it when it first launched back in February.

Alpine currently find themselves dead last in the championship with no points and having to brave the embarrassment of having to retire a car on the first lap of last Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The latest in a long line to jump the Alpine ship is the team’s advisor Bob Bell. He follows Matt Harman, the team’s technical director, and their head of aerodynamics, Dirk de Beer, out the door.

After the latter mentioned resignations, Alpine were quick to announce a “restructuring” which will see a three-way split of the team’s technical responsibilities as they hired three separate technical directors.

With Joe Burnell at the helm of engineering, David Wheater steering aerodynamics and Ciaron Pilbeam responsible for performance, Alpine hope to get ahead in their fight with RB, Kick Sauber and Williams – all still fighting to get a single point on the board.

If Alpine is able to claw their way back to where they were last year, there’s still no guarantee that they may outperform Aston Martin, scoring less than half the points of the fifth-place finisher in ending sixth last year.

• The F1 world is still ablaze after the phenomenal drive of the Brit Ollie Bearman for Ferrari after his last-minute replacement of Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia.

Whether the musical chairs set off by Hamilton’s move to Ferrari might leave Bearman in a permanent seat remains to be seen, as rumours of Kimi Antonelli’s move to F1 have been hampered by Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff’s admission that he may have “talked too much” about Antonelli.

• Another driver lacking in lustre appeared to be Daniel Ricciardo – and it’s not just for his race pace. The Australian landed himself in hot water with his zealous female fan base after describing misconduct allegations of a sexual nature against Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner as “noise” and “distractions”.

Ricciardo’s normally ardent audience were quick to share their disappointment in his comments online and flocked to his comments section on social media to take him to task. Every attempt by the RB team to celebrate International Women’s Day, left fans unimpressed.

Williams’ team principal, James Vowles, alongside McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes lead driver Lewis Hamilton, emerged as the champions for women’s rights. Vowles told the media that F1 should, precisely due to its reputation as a “boys club”, make more of an effort to create a space in which women are welcomed. Hamilton said the recent off-track drama “affects everybody”, noting that it may shine a negative light on the sport and all stakeholders involved.

• Rumours are still rife that several key players like Red Bull’s chief technical director and advisor Helmut Marko may call it a day. The defending world champion Max Verstappen is said to be close behind Marko as he allegedly has a release clause that stipulates that he may exit his contract if Marko leaves the team.