2024 has already been extremely busy for Red Bull’s sister team, as they’ve successfully completed their rebrand.

V-CARB might be a name which hasn’t gone down well with fans, but this hasn’t stopped them from pushing on with their preparations.

As part of their preparations for what the Faenza-based side hope will be a positive season, three key figures have been signed.

READ: Lewis Hamilton warned to stop crying ‘too much’

The first of which is ex-Alpine sporting director Alan Permane, who left the French side alongside Otmar Szafnauer after last year’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Permane has joined V-CARB as their racing director and is excited to “return to racing”.

“After a few months of downtime, it’s great to return to racing again with the Visa Cash App RB team” Permane said in a team statement.

“From long experience, I know how professional, driven and competitive the people within this race team are and I can’t wait to see where that spirit can take the team in the future.”

Other big names to have been signed by V-CARB include ex-FIA single-seater technical director Tim Goss will become the outfit’s chief technical officer.

As well as this, Guillaume Cattelani has joined as their new deputy technical director.

READ: Fernando Alonso reveals huge Aston Martin worry

Red Bull’s sister side have clearly been very busy to ensure that they are as ready as possible for the 2024 season, with new team principal Laurent Mekies noting how the three signings bring “a vast amount of winning expertise” to the squad.

“The appointments of Tim, Guillaume and Alan add a vast amount of winning expertise to the team, and I have no doubt that they will help take the team to the next level in F1,” Mekies said.

“We already have a very strong and hugely experienced group at the Team and bringing onboard highly-skilled individuals like Tim, Guillaume and Alan will boost our capability and help us meet the highest technical standards at Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, both at the factory and at the track.”

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Permane was brutally shown the exit door by Alpine ahead of qualifying at the recent Belgian Grand Prix, alongside now ex-Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

Permane’s shock firing has been criticised by many, especially has he worked for the Enstone-based team for 34 years.

Wolff even labelled him as “one of the longest-serving engineers in the sport”, with Permane having a level of knowledge and experience which will be almost impossible for Alpine to replace.

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“Alan Permane is one of the cornerstones of F1,” said Wolff, as reported by GPFans.com. “You definitely shouldn’t discount anyone that senior.

“He’s one of the longest-serving engineers in the sport, and certainly someone with a lot of knowledge.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of the management shakeup (at Alpine), but there are a lot of very reputable people out there.”

Whilst working at the Enstone-based outfit over the last 34 years, Permane has worked with some of the all-time greats, including seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher and two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso.

Given his expertise, Horner expects Permane to be offered a new job very quickly.

“Although I have never worked with Alan Permane, I think sometimes you have to show respect for someone who has worked hard for 34 years and has participated in world championships with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso,” insisted Horner.

READ: Mercedes reveal George Russell stance amid Lewis Hamilton contract uncertainty

“He’s also been a steady hand through periods where the team went into administration, and came out of administration, and went through different owners and so on.

“He has been a constant during that period. I think that deserves respect and recognition, and I am sure that, like Otmar, he will not be without a job. It won’t be the last time he sees them in the pit lane, there’s no doubt about that.”

With Wolff and Horner both seemingly being fans of Permane, perhaps Mercedes and Red Bull will duel for his signature?

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The Enstone-based operation has been in turmoil after the sacking of Otmar Szafnaeur and his sporting director Alan Permane.

The timing of Alpine’s announcement of these departures raised eyebrows as well.

The sackings were declared after the opening practice at the Belgian GP, presumably disconcerting drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

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It coincided with news that Alpine technical director, Pat Fry, had joined Williams.

Only days prior, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi made a lateral move to the ‘special projects’ position within Renault.

Bruno Famin took his place and now holds joint positions of CEO and team boss.

The Frenchman may soon be relieved of his team principal duties by Mattia Binotti, identified as the “most probable” candidate.

The slapdash nature of how this has all unfolded at Alpine has led to rumours that Renault is gearing up to sell the organisation.

Red Bull has suggested that it should do this – to “shake up” the Formula One landscape.

Alpine has already sold a 24% stake to a group of investors headed by Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds.

This deal valued the team at around $900m.

That leaves Renault with a remaining hypothetical interest of $695m.

Michael Andretti, owner of Andretti Autosport, has made no secret of his desire to enter the F1 world and now seems like the perfect time to strike. 

He has pushed for an 11th team to be allowed into the sport on previous occasions.

However, there has been fierce resistance to this idea from other team principals, who believe Andretti would be better served buying an existing team.

However, Famin denied that Alpine was considering a takeover from Andretti.

READ: Mattia Binotto receives formal Alpine offer as F1 return looks imminent

He said: “We have a fascinating project with Alpine.

“The real project is developing the Alpine, supported by the Alpine F1 team, the endurance project, so we are totally focused on that one.

“It’s really part of the Alpine project.”

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Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz has openly questioned the curious timing of the announcement and offered a theory on Alpine’s motives for making the move during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

Alpine stunned the paddock by revealing the departure of Szafnauer and Permane during Friday practice at Spa-Francorchamps. 

Following the announcement, Alpine Vice President of Motorsports Bruno Famin was appointed as the interim team principal, further feeling speculation about the sudden changes.

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Kravitz highlighted that Famin had been appointed above Szafnauer a few weeks prior to the announcement, which had already raised suspicions among F1 insiders. 

He questioned why Alpine didn’t announce the news ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix or wait until the summer break to handle the situation discreetly.

“He [Famin] was appointed above Otmar a few weeks ago,” Kravitz said. 

“Now when that happened we all knew something was up, so given that there have been rumors that Otmar’s time as team principal of Alpine was not going to be particularly long, why did they wait until the middle of a grand prix weekend to announce it.”

Kravitz speculated that there might have been a financial settlement between Szafnauer and Alpine, allowing them to present the departure as a mutual agreement to terminate contracts. 

However, he couldn’t understand why the announcement wasn’t made earlier, avoiding the media frenzy during the race weekend.

“They obviously parted ways, they did a deal where I assume – and we haven’t had this confirmed – there was a financial settlement which allowed them to say it was by mutual agreement that their contracts were terminated,” Kravitz explained. 

“So with that all in place, why not announce it on the Wednesday before we got here so it would have been off the story on Thursday.”

Kravitz then proposed a theory for the timing of the announcement, suggesting that Alpine might have wanted to show decisiveness and strong action in removing elements that were not in line with their goals.

READ: Sergio Perez working with psychologist amid Red Bull pressure

“Why not do it on Monday? I don’t get it,” he pondered. 

“Unless, they wanted to make the biggest splash possible in showing they’re taking strong action and decisive action in removing elements that are not going to help them get to their goals – that’s the only explanation it could be.”

“They need to be seen, Renault, to be taking decisive action – that’s the only logical conclusion as to why they didn’t do the old summer break press release,” Kravitz added.

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The whole situation arose following the conclusion of the United States Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago, where Haas were furious that Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez weren’t shown a black and orange flag.

The Americans were furious at the actions of the governing body, who all year have shown a driver a black and orange flag when any small amount of damage was visible.

Kevin Magnussen has been shown this flag multiple times this year, representing the reason why Haas were furious.

READ: Sebastian Vettel delivers good news to fans as he comments on F1 return

Despite Alonso’s car having gone into the air before slapping back onto the circuit, no black and orange flag was shown to the Spaniard following his collision with Lance Stroll, despite onboard footage showing that his wing mirror was broken.

Alonso’s mirror flew off his car later in the race, which resulted in the driver being awarded a 30-second penalty after the race, following a protest by Haas.

However, the penalty was later reverted, after Alpine argued that Haas’ complaint was made after the legal window, something that was discovered to be true.

Pérez, on the other hand, wasn’t even discussed by the FIA, despite Haas having also protested against the Mexican.

The 32-year-old’s front endplate could be seen flapping about, before also flying off his car.

Despite this, no flag was shown to the Mexican, meaning he wasn’t forced to pit for the damage to be repaired.

Alpine’s Alan Permane revealed that the teams had made the FIA take a U-turn on their approach to award a driver a black and orange flag if any damage was visible, with “small damages like a mirror, like front-wing endplate, if it’s non-structural like a brake duct, something like that, will not be considered to be a black and orange flag offence”.

Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin supported this action, for the black and orange flag to not be used for light damage, saying that “we’ve survived a lot of years where they were used correctly and infrequently, and we do need to just let the drivers get on with driving and not be too afraid of getting near another car”.

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl is one of the few who believes a driver should be shown the black and orange flag for any damage, with the Woking-based team’s boss having not “forgotten” the terrible incident that happened to Felipe Massa.

At the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix during Free Practice, Massa was hit by a fallen spring off Rubens Barrichello’s car, who was directly ahead of him.

The spring directly hit Massa in the visor after bouncing off the circuit, which resulted in the Brazilian being knocked out, which caused him to crash at high speed into the barrier on the exit of the incredibly quick Turn Four.

Massa suffered from concussion, eye damage, and a fractured skull, which ruled him out for the remainder of the season.

Seidl never wants to see a similar incident happen ever again, resulting in him wanting the FIA to maintain their strict approach to the black and orange flag.

“My view is that in general, when you have parts on the car which are at risk to fly off the cars, you get called in,” Seidl said.

“Because I haven’t forgotten what happened to Felipe Massa in Hungary.

“And we need to be aware something can happen anytime [when] such a part is falling off of a car. So I think that’s our responsibility in that case, to call the car in.

READ: Lewis Hamilton plays Safety Car prank on George Russell

“I guess it’s just important now moving forward, without any emotions, have a good discussion between the teams and FIA and just put in place clear guidelines, what we all want in the interest of safety.

“And take it away from any current emotions around opportunistic views of where everyone is in the championship or what happened in the past.

“But again, safety always needs to come first. Don’t forget what happened to Felipe Massa. This can happen anytime if a part like this is falling off and I just think it would be the wrong thing to actually be aware that something is loose and could fall off and just accept it and keep going.”

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Singapore was disastrous for Alpine, with both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon having suffered an engine failure.

It was made even worse for the Enstone-based side by McLaren claiming their first double top five of the season, as Lando Norris finished fourth with Daniel Ricciardo in fifth.

It saw the Woking-based team complete an incredible overhaul, given that they were almost 20 points behind ahead of Singapore.

READ: Helmut Marko delivers bad news to Yuki Tsunoda as he comments on Nyck de Vries

Alpine made sure, though, that McLaren’s time in fourth didn’t last long, as Ocon finished fourth and Alonso finished seventh at Suzuka.

The French side take a 13-point lead into the United States Grand Prix as a result, meaning it’s McLaren who once again have all the work to do.

Norris has continually said that his side aren’t good enough to battle Alpine and he was at it again after Suzuka, where he revealed it was “not a surprise” to drop back to fifth in the standings.

“Not good news, but not a surprise,” he said, discussing Alpine reclaiming fourth place.

“Like I’ve said so many times, they’re so much quicker than us.

“I have no clue how we’re still fighting them in the championship. Like they are another league to us at the minute.

“I’m happy we’ve been able to fight them so far into the season, it shows we’ve done a very good job in all other areas, with reliability, with maximising our performances, taking opportunities, not making mistakes.

“They must’ve done a lot worse than us on all of those areas to only just be ahead of us in the championship with the car that they have.

“So… not a surprise I think. It’s not really a big fight at the minute, because they’re so much quicker.

“But we’ll keep trying. Yeah. Keep trying to limit the points loss we have at the minute.”

Alpine sporting director Alan Permane seems to think his side have the McLaren driver “rattled”, with Norris having some sort of thing about Alpine being considerably faster.

It could be an attempt at mind games; however, Permane doesn’t seem to care, with the French side targeting Mercedes, rather than McLaren.

“Lando keeps saying that doesn’t he? We only just need to be ahead,” said Permane.

“I’m not sure why he keeps on. I guess we’ve got him rattled.

READ: Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso? Sebastian Vettel reveals his fiercest opponent

“We’re much more focused on Mercedes. We’re trying to beat Mercedes, that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to get ourselves on to that level.

“And of course we had a huge setback in Singapore, but I think here it’s back to normal and I would imagine the next races we can do the same.

“The car is clearly getting quicker and I think it’s getting closer to those top guys.”

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The comments come following the highly disappointing ending to the recent Italian Grand Prix, which finished behind the Safety Car due to Daniel Ricciardo retiring towards the end of the race.

The Aussie’s MCL36 came to a halt between the two Lesmos on Lap 47/53; however, marshals were unable to quickly push his car to safety due to it being stuck in gear.

This massively delayed the recovery process, as a tractor was needed to use its crane in order to lift the stricken McLaren to safety.

READ: Ex-F1 champion makes big claim about George Russell beating Lewis Hamilton

By the time Ricciardo’s car was in a safe place, Verstappen had just started the penultimate lap, meaning that under the rulebook the race had to finish behind the Safety Car.

Race director Niels Wittich faced a mixed response, with some having been disappointed with him not red flagging the race, whilst others, predominantly Mercedes, praised Wittich for following the rules.

Some members of the paddock have suggested that a rule should be introduced to ensure that races always finish with green flag racing, even if it means halting the race temporarily.

Permane thinks the idea of having potentially a short sprint to the line “doesn’t sound crazy”, but that it’s more important to get the Safety Car procedures “right”, before introducing new rules.

“It sounds like you have a six-lap sprint, everyone has fresh tyres and we go,” said Permane.

“There will be some unintended consequences but it’s happened before, we did it in Baku last year. I guess you can write that into the regs, it doesn’t sound crazy.”

“We’re here to put a show on and that was clearly wasn’t acceptable.

“It’s not an ideal finish at all. No one wants to finish under the Safety Car. It’s miserable. It’s really miserable for the fans.

“Maybe we don’t need to knee-jerk, to say every time it’s red-flagged within 50 kilometres of the end or something, you throw a red flag. Maybe we need to just make sure we get those Safety Car procedures right,” Permane said in regard to the Safety Car picking up George Russell rather than Max Verstappen.

“We have been working to try and make them quicker. The problem is with Safety Cars later in the race, you’ve got these lapped cars and we’ve had endless discussions about how to improve that situation. And there are definitely many unintended consequences of changing that procedure.”

The Italian GP was handled perfectly in relation to the rulebook, unlike the 2021 season finale where Michael Masi failed to follow the sport’s guidelines.

Finding a correct way to end races is a topic that was supposedly talked about by team principals before; however, Aston Martin boss Mike Krack revealed that the teams can’t agree on how to deal with late race incidents like Ricciardo’s or Nicholas Latifi’s.

“It’s a topic that will come back again on the agenda because there has never been consensus, really, what is the best way forward,” Krack said.

“You have also the situation that we have [at Monza]: Do you say, for example, if the race would have been two or three laps longer, do you leave the lapped cars where they are? Do let them overtake?

“I think this also is the decision of the race director. He has a little bit of playing area but at the end of the day Danny’s car was standing there also for quite long, so he cannot let the race go.”

Krack believes the recent race at the ‘Temple of Speed’ could’ve been restarted with at least a lap left, something which seems to be believed by the majority of the paddock.

Like Permane, Krack wants the Safety Car procedure to be ironed out to avoid errors such as picking up the wrong car; however, the 50-year-old recognises that “mistakes happen”.

READ: McLaren admit ‘aggressive approach’ as they try to fight Alpine

“There is a set of rules and procedures in place that the race director has to respect,” Krack added.

“And when you have a Safety Car so late in the race, there is always a risk that it finishes like that. I think it was a bit unfortunate that they caught George instead of Max so I think maybe a lap was lost. But mistakes happen.

“Obviously for the fans, it was not nice that is the race ends like that. But I think they were more disappointed that Ferrari did not win rather than the race ending behind the Safety Car.”

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The Hungarian Grand Prix was the second time this season Aston Martin have arrived at a race and caused a stir.

The British side arrived in Barcelona in the second European race of the season with sidepods that looked oddly similar to those of Red Bull.

The Austrian side asked the FIA if this was not illegal, and adviser Dr Helmut Marko suggested that “data was stolen” from his team, although he could not say whether that data was used to inform Aston Martin’s design.

READ: Helmut Marko believes Sebastian Vettel can still fight for wins, but supports retirement decision

However, the “green Red Bull” had actually, as confirmed by the FIA, been designed late last year, so there was no wrongdoing on the British team’s part. 

In Budapest, McLaren arrived with new sidepods of their own, while Aston Martin had radically changed their rear wing. Haas also took Ferrari’s sidepod idea to use on Kevin Magnussen’s car.

READ: ‘I’m going to be blunt’: Ex-Ferrari employee reveals Sebastian Vettel clashed with team members

The changes for the Silverstone-based side had little effect over the course of the weekend, with neither Sebastian Vettel nor Lance Stroll making Q3, before Vettel grabbed the final point in P10.

Nonetheless, the changes being made to the car are a foundation for later, so Alpine sporting director Alan Permane indicated that his team as well as the other eight will be studying the design concept.

Krack still finds the comments made by Red Bull about Aston Martin’s design in Spain a little rude, but in any case, the German is certain that, particularly on the downforce-hungry Singapore track, other teams will be taking his team’s idea.

“Those comments were partly unfair, but that’s how it goes in Formula 1,” said Krack.

“The next races where a lot of downforce is important are Zandvoort and Singapore, I’d be surprised if we are the only ones racing with this idea in Singapore.”

Aston Martin have nine races left with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel before they welcome in Alpine’s Fernando Alonso next year to replace the retiring 35-year-old.

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Renault, led by two impressive podiums from Daniel Ricciardo, have a one-point advantage over both Racing Point and McLaren who are level on 134 points apiece.

READ: ‘F*** The Oil Money’: Fans React To The 2021 Saudi Arabian GP

While Renault seems to have found its rhythm in the latter half of the season, Ricciardo believes it will be a challenge for them to maintain third in the standings.

Specifically, the Australian driver said: “I think our development’s helped us and I’m sure we’re very close now but probably raw performance, I’d probably still say [Racing Point] have an edge.”

This sentiment was echoed by Alan Permane, Renault’s sporting director, who said: “Unfortunately, [Racing Point’s] car is the quickest of the three,” but went on to clarify, “I think it’s a little bit circuit-dependent.”

Renault’s second driver, Esteban Ocon, also believes that the pecking order is track-dependent, stating: “We’ve shown, especially more recently, we are quick at a number of different circuits as well as in varying conditions. We also know our competitors are fast and are not making it easy for us.”

READ: Sainz Won’t Last Long At Ferrari Unless He Matches Leclerc – Coulthard

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