Permane’s New Path: Driving Racing Bulls Forward

Alan Permane, Racing Bulls’ key addition, aims to transform team dynamics and performance with his management and technical expertise this season.

Alan Permane is Racing Bulls’ new race director. Dismissed from his long-time team Alpine F1 in mid-2023, the Briton is now tasked with improving performance and operations at his new Italian base.

So, how would Permane describe his role? Is it 100% operational?

“My job is trackside, and I attend all the races,” he tells PlanetF1.

“When I’m not at the races, I split my time between the UK and Italy, communicating to the people there what we’re doing here, what we need, what I see that could help us, where we can improve, and things like that.”

“But there’s already a significant infrastructure in place to handle this, so that aspect is well-established in the team. I’m just another piece of the puzzle, trying to bring in my engineering experience, but probably more in management, if you will. I’ve been in a management role for quite some time, and I’m simply trying to bring that to the engineering team.”

Permane may have already contributed his experience to Racing Bulls. For example, last year, when the upgrades introduced in Barcelona failed badly, the team managed to quickly reverse course. Did Permane play a role in that?

“A key strength we’ve had here—and I’m not saying it’s a weakness elsewhere—but a key strength is how fast we reacted to that.”

“We had Barcelona one weekend. It was a disaster. We had Austria the next weekend, and we reacted quickly, changing many parts for the Austrian Sprint, and even more for the main race.”

“I wouldn’t say we fully mastered the situation, but we learned a lot. We reverted to an earlier specification, but there’s no doubt that the Barcelona upgrade, which wasn’t an improvement, cost us significantly in terms of momentum.”

“It took us quite a while, until after the summer break, to get back on track. We had a small upgrade in Monza, but Monza, Baku, and Singapore were not good at all.”

All eyes are now on the 2025 VCARB02, set to be unveiled in London alongside other F1 cars this month.

This season, Permane approaches it with greater optimism—at least on a personal level—thanks to his growing familiarity with the Racing Bulls environment.

“Things are evolving, and you get to know the engineers better, you get to know the drivers and the aerodynamicists better, and you just work more closely with people.”

“So, I hope that will simply keep building and that we’ll become an even stronger group. There won’t be a major reset or big changes [for 2025], I’m sure of that.”

No culture shock crossing over the Alps.

Did Alan Permane experience a culture shock moving from France and the UK to Italy?

“No, not a culture shock at all. A different team, of course, so there are changes, but it’s been very pleasant.”

“I’ve been impressed by the open-mindedness, the lack of ego, or anything of that sort, which I think is something Formula 1 can sometimes be guilty of, where people can have fixed opinions on certain matters.”

“I’ve really enjoyed it. I think I’ve settled in well, and it’s a role change for me.”

“I was on the sporting side, and now I’m much more on the technical side, trackside, and I’m enjoying that.”

“I’m helping as much as I can and helping guide this strong team of engineers we already have here toward better things, hopefully.”