A veteran of over 30 years in Formula 1, Alan Permane suddenly found himself cast aside amid one of the sport's more turbulent reshuffles. Fast forward two years, and the respected engineer is now a team principal for the first time, leading the charge at a resurgent Racing Bulls.
By F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth
BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Formula One moves fast, and it rarely waits for anyone. When Alpine cut him loose two summers ago, Alan Permane could easily have disappeared after three decades in the paddock. Instead, he reappeared at Racing Bulls and soon found himself running the team - the same steady presence but now with a broader brief.
A CONSTANT AMID THE CHAOS
For more than 30 years, Permane was Team Enstone's anchor. He joined the then-Benetton squad as a mechanic in 1989, and rose through race engineering and strategy roles as the team won titles with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso. When the team cycled through rebrands as Renault, Lotus, back to Renault and finally Alpine, he stayed.
Around him, the leadership changed constantly. Since Renault bought the team back in 2016, there have been seven different team bosses and almost as many CEOs.
The team's driver contract saga in 2022 showed how unstable things had become. Alonso signed for Aston Martin and Alpine announced test driver Oscar Piastri as his replacement, only for the Australian to publicly deny the deal hours later before revealing he would instead move to McLaren.
At Spa the following summer came another clear-out, as Permane and team principal Otmar Szafnauer were both dismissed before the weekend was out.
"I was devastated," Permane said of his sudden ousting. "But actually, it's turned out to be the best thing that's ever happened to me professionally."
A DIFFERENT KIND OF PROMOTION
Though his departure from Enstone was unexpected, the esteem in which Permane was held in the paddock ensured he wasn't about to be shuffled out of F1 for good.
"My phone rang that afternoon," he recalled of his final day with Alpine. "A couple of people reached out, which was lovely." By the start of 2024, he was back in the paddock with Racing Bulls, reporting to team boss Laurent Mekies as Racing Director.
He wasn't hired to lead the team, but things changed quickly when Mekies moved to Red Bull this July to replace the ousted Christian Horner, and Permane was installed as team principal at Faenza that same day.
"It happened very quickly, [but] it was an honor to be asked," he said of his appointment. "A big shock, a big surprise."
An engineer by trade, who by his own admission never sought the top job at Enstone, he doesn't sound like someone who enjoys talking about leadership. "The thing that's always been important to me is performance," he said. "I've always been trying to find performance. Now I'm still doing that, but on a bigger level - out of people, out of systems, out of decisions."
SIMPLER SYSTEMS, FASTER ANSWERS
Racing Bulls is subordinate to the whims of both Red Bull's F1 team and its parent company's corporate HQ in Austria. But Permane insists decisions are made quickly and easily - a notion perhaps borne out by the speed of his own appointment.
"Once we decide we want to do something, we get on and do it," he said. "There's a board, of course, but that's all done early. Having that trust from both sides, Faenza and Austria, is impressive," he said, though he insists he wasn't about to come in and make sweeping changes. "I pledged not to come in and change anything until I understood it," he said. "I'm here to steady the ship."
The progress is measurable. Racing Bulls sits sixth in the 2025 Constructors' standings, up from eighth last year, already on 72 points - 24 more than its 2024 total, with six races left. Both drivers have achieved their best results under Permane: Liam Lawson finished fifth in Baku, while Isack Hadjar scored Faenza's best result in four years with a superb third at Zandvoort.
Asked if that reflects his influence, he shakes his head. "Coincidence," he says modestly. "I take absolutely no credit for that."
WORKING WITHIN THE ORBIT
Permane doesn't bristle at Racing Bulls' role within the Red Bull ecosystem, where drivers who are deemed good enough are invariably whisked away to the senior team. "One of the reasons this team exists is to train up talent for Red Bull," he says. "That was very clear when I came."
That talent pathway may be in evidence again later this year, with rumors that Red Bull is seeking to promote Hadjar for 2026 at the expense of the struggling Yuki Tsunoda - himself a recent graduate of the Racing Bulls finishing school. But Permane is pragmatic about his team's place in the pecking order. "Of course you want to hang on to good drivers," he said. "But getting them ready to go up [to Red Bull] is what we're here for."
Permane doesn't look or feel much like a team principal, and doesn't talk at length about culture, vision, or legacy. Instead, the narrative is about doing things properly and trusting others to do likewise. After having been unceremoniously pushed aside at Alpine, his steady hand is now steering Racing Bulls through its best season in years, underlining the value of experience in an ever-changing sport. ■
