The questions lingering as Famin becomes Alpine’s latest F1 fall guy

There is one lasting image I have of Alpine’s departing team principal, Bruno Famin, that sums up his short tenure with the struggling Formula 1 team.
It came, of all places, at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport in the hours after the Canadian Grand Prix where Alpine finished in ninth and tenth place.

As he shuffled through the terminal wearing full-team kit, he looked a stooped figure and was walking incredibly slowly with his Alpine-supplied rucksack on his back. An electric mobility vehicle drove even more slowly behind him, amber light flashing and, despite the driver repeatedly pressing the horn, Famin was oblivious to its presence.

Rather like this F1 career, Famin was in the wrong place at the wrong time. By the time he’d noticed, it was too late and the vehicle had swooped around and overtaken him.

Famin was not a bad team boss. In fact, those inside the team like and respect him, which is more than can be said for some the previous incumbents.


However, he found himself in a position that coincided with the team’s decline, which had been coming for some time given the management changes and lack of cohesion between its Enstone base and engine department in Viry.

Alpine has cycled through management changes at at rate of knots. Cyril Abiteboul, Davide Brivio, Marcin Budkowski, Otmar Szafnauer and Laurent Rossi have all spun through the revolving door at an alarming rate. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems that as success dries up – or even fails to materialise – the pressure rises and a senior management figure is despatched.

Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Famin, was no thrills. Understated. And by all accounts adequate at his job in charge of the team’s engine division, including overseeing the overhaul of its power unit.

He offered a steady hand on the tiller. Someone who in theory could navigate their slump and offer some consistency. However, in truth, Renault has been some way off the performance of its rivals for years. It is now set to throw in the towel altogether on its F1 engine operation.

The difficulty was being able to marry to the two departments in France and the UK into a functioning unit and Famin will take the brunt for producing a car that was too heavy and too slow at the start of the season. Any revival now will be too little too late.

Famin, who will now devote his attentions solely to Renault’s other programmes based out of Viry including its World Endurance Championship Hypercar operation, is the latest fall guy for that failure.
Of course, there are always wider issues.

Questions will no doubt he asked of Renault CEO Luca de Meo and his leadership, including the reappointment of Flavio Briatore, despite coming close to sinking the French car giant’s F1 involvement altogether back in 2008.


There are other points to raise too, like what is Renault trying to achieve with Alpine?

The decision to re-badge its F1 operation has so far failed to reach the desire impact of firmly establishing itself as Renault’s flagship brand. And as far as I can tell, there are still only four variants of the Alpine A110 model. It is all rather confusing as to what it is trying to achieve.

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

Photo by: Alpine

Then there was Alpine’s performance at Le Mans, where both of its new A424 LMDh cars suffered engine failures within an hour of each other. On home soil, this was deeply embarrassing.

Whoever is next in the hot seat to replace Famin – rumoured to be Oliver Oakes, Hitech F2 and F3 boss – can be sure to be in for a hefty amount of Anglo French political strife that has clogged up the wheels of progress.

Renault’s problems run deep and when success is not delivered, it is easy to wield the axe and proportion blame. But maybe the problem is with the person holding the axe only, rather like Famin in the airport, they are just so blissfully unaware of that’s going on around them.

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