Formula 1 veteran Pat Fry has been promoted to Alpine F1 Team Chief Technical Officer amid the French team’s senior management shuffle ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
Also on the move is Matt Harman appointed Alpine Technical Director, confirmed by team boss Laurnet Rossi today: “We are considerably strengthening Alpine F1 Team by having Pat and Matt at the helm of Engineering in Enstone.
“Pat is one of the most experienced engineers in Formula 1, while Matt’s drive and expertise will prove critical in extracting the full potential of our race cars, thanks in particular to his unique expertise combining chassis and engine development,” added Rossi.
Fry started his career in F1 with the Benneton in 1987, working with F1 legend Michael Schumacher for two years. In 1993 he joined Mclaren where remained until 2020 when Ferrari came calling.
After a five year spell at Maranello, he departed at the end of 2014, taking a year break and resurfacing with Manor Racing for the 2016 and 2017 seasons before joining McLaren in 2018.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of F1 legend Alain Prost and Marcin Budkowski being made surplus to requirements at Alpine, who tackle their second F1 season (since the rebrand from Renault) with Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon in the driving seats.
PressRelease:
Alpine F1 Team is pleased to announce the promotions of Pat Fry to the role of Chief Technical Officer and Matt Harman as Technical Director.
This decision is part of a new organization designed to maximize the team’s performance, initiated in November 2021. Their mission is to contribute to developing the car’s performance to achieve the objectives defined by Luca de Meo, CEO of the Renault Group, and Laurent Rossi, Alpine CEO, to fight for the championship within 100 races after Alpine’s arrival into F1.
As CTO, Pat Fry will oversee all technical activities in Enstone, and will be responsible for setting the performance target of the car, defining the technical capabilities and competencies needed and identifying future technologies and disruptors.
He will ultimately arbitrate on major performance trade-offs and risks, and set the long-term development strategy to maximize performance within the constraints of the cost cap.
Matt Harman, previously Engineering Director, will now take responsibility for delivering performance and experiments to the track, structuring the technical organization and processes, plus growing talents and teams. He will oversee chassis technical direction and bring to the team his unique experience in chassis / power unit technical integration and trade-offs.
Matt’s background as PU engineer will help strengthen the link to the engine department at Viry and further optimize PU integration. Matt was recruited from Mercedes in 2018, where he spent 18 years, covering a wide range of chassis projects.
