Mike Elliott joins Alpine as chief technical officer

BWT Alpine Formula One Team has appointed Mike Elliott as its chief technical officer, handing him charge of the technical and engineering departments at the squad’s Enstone base. It is a return to familiar ground for the British engineer, who worked at the same factory as principal aerodynamicist between 2008 and 2012. He arrives from Mercedes, where he most recently held the same chief technical officer title.

BWT Alpine Formula One Team has confirmed Mike Elliott as its new chief technical officer. In the role he will lead and oversee the technical and engineering functions at the team’s factory in Enstone, Oxfordshire.

A return to Enstone

Elliott is no stranger to the site. He spent four years there from 2008 to 2012 as principal aerodynamicist, during a period when the operation raced under the Renault banner. The Enstone factory has been the team’s home since 1992 and has previously carried the Benetton Formula, Renault F1 Team and Lotus F1 Team identities.

Across his career he has spent 23 years in Formula One, with spells at Renault, McLaren and most recently Mercedes, where he served as chief technical officer. According to the team, he has contributed to eight Constructors’ and eight Drivers’ Championships over that period.

What the team wants from the appointment

Alpine frames the hire as a way of strengthening its technical capabilities. The stated aim is to build on the team’s improved on-track form and to close the gap to the four teams ahead of it — a gap that has defined Alpine’s position in the pecking order for several seasons.

The timing matters. Formula One’s regulations changed for 2026, and Alpine’s current car, the A526, is the first machine built to the new rules at Enstone. Teams that read the new regulations well tend to lock in an advantage that lasts several years, so senior technical leadership carries more weight than usual right now. Alpine has not said when Elliott formally starts work, nor how the appointment sits alongside the team’s existing technical structure.

The wider picture at Alpine

The team currently fields Grand Prix winner Pierre Gasly alongside Franco Colapinto, working under executive advisor Flavio Briatore and managing director Steve Nielsen. Around 1,000 people are employed at the Oxfordshire site, which is where the A526 is both designed and built, across a 24-race season.

Enstone’s record includes seven Formula One World Championships: the Drivers’ title in 1994, 1995, 2005 and 2006 with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, and the Constructors’ title in 1995, 2005 and 2006. Rebuilding towards that level has been the stated ambition behind a run of senior hires and restructuring at the team.

What it means

For Alpine, bringing in an engineer who has worked inside a title-winning Mercedes operation is a bet on process as much as on aerodynamics. Whether it translates into lap time will not be clear for some time; technical appointments in Formula One typically take a season or more to show up in results, because car concepts are locked in long before they reach the grid.

The team has not announced a start date for Elliott.

Source: media.alpinecars.com