Alpine has confirmed the departure of veteran operations director Rob White after twenty years with the French group.
Seemingly, White was sacked by group boss Bruno Famin earlier this week, with group personnel knowledgeable of his departure on Wednesday.
Satirically, at a time former boss, Flavio Briatore is linked with a return to the group, White joined the Enstone-based outfit in 2004 as technical director engines, in time to spearhead Fernando Alonso’s back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.
Having graduated from Southampton College with a level in mechanical engineering, White joined Cosworth to work as a growth engineer on its IndyCar programme.
Subsequently promoted to the position of help supervisor for Cosworth USA, White headed to California, returning 4 years later as chief engineer to the engine producer’s F1 programme, remaining there till 2003.
“As a part of the group’s wider operational restructure, we will verify the departure of Rob White,” mentioned a group spokesperson at this time in response to on-line stories of White’s departure.
“The group is grateful for Rob’s efforts throughout his lengthy profession each at Enstone and at Viry-Chatillon, the place he led the championship-winning engine challenge in 2005 and 2006. We want him the very best in his future endeavours.”
White’s sacking is the most recent in a collection of bombshells to hit the French outfit, which solely final weekend noticed its two drivers collide on the opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix, and at the moment stands ninth within the group standings.
Beforehand, group boss Otmar Szafnauer parted firm with the group, and is known to nonetheless be on gardening depart regardless of leaving in mid-2023. His departure was adopted by different high-profile losses together with sporting director Alan Permane and Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry.
As Permane headed to RB and Fry to Williams, Former racing director Davide Brivio returned to MotoGP whereas technical director Matt Harman and aerodynamics head Dirk de Beer each left in March.
As if this wasn’t sufficient, Bob Bell, who had been Technical Director Chassis on the time White headed the engine division, and was most not too long ago serving in an advisory capability, additionally left in March to affix Aston Martin as technical government director.
The group seems to be in freefall, however little doubt it’s valued at $2bn by the Zak Brown’s of this world.
