Motor racing: Sanchez joins Alpine as technical head after leaving McLaren

LONDON: David Sanchez has joined the struggling Renault-owned Alpine Formula One team as executive technical director after leaving McLaren in April only three months after joining. The French engineer, who will oversee the technical department at Enstone, started his F1 career in 2005 as a junior aerodynamicist with Renault F1.

Alpine said in a statement on Thursday he will have overall responsibility for the performance, engineering, and aerodynamic areas of the team and report to principal Bruno Famin. "This is a key appointment to ensure we are optimising everything we do as a team and focusing on the right performance areas," said Famin.

"It is clear that the performance of the car and development path has not moved at a sufficient pace relative to our ambitions as a team." Alpine have yet to score a point in five races this season and are last but one in the championship.

"This team has always had so many fantastic people involved and there is clearly so much potential to unlock," said Sanchez. "We have a big task ahead to improve on-track performance and it is this type of challenge that motivates me." He joined McLaren from Ferrari, where he led the aerodynamics department, and was trumpeted by the former champions as a major signing.

McLaren then announced he was leaving because "the role, responsibilities and ambitions associated with David's position did not align with our original expectations."