Who is Alan Permane? Everything you need to know about the newest team boss in F1

Alan Permane was named as Racing Bulls’ new Team Principal on Wednesday, following a reshuffle that has seen Laurent Mekies promoted to CEO of Red Bull after the exit of Christian Horner. As Permane prepares to take the reins of the sister squad, F1.com has the lowdown on the Briton’s career so far…

F1 beginnings with Benetton

After completing an electronic engineering apprenticeship, Permane secured his first role with the then-called Benetton team in 1989 in what would prove to be the start of a long chapter in his career.

“It was exciting times for me,” Permane recalled to the Beyond The Grid podcast in 2020. “I’d just turned 22, I’d got a job in Formula 1.

“I’d just come out of an electronic apprenticeship and had my eyes opened to the world of Formula 1. It was awesome.”

From there his role grew from being factory-based to becoming an electronic engineer for the test team, while in 1990 Permane joined the race team, with his first event being the United States Grand Prix at the Phoenix Street Circuit.

Race engineering beckons

Permane experienced plenty of success as part of the Benetton team in the years that followed, with the squad winning the Teams’ Championship in 1995 in a year that also saw Michael Schumacher take his second consecutive Drivers’ title.

The next step for Permane came when he was promoted to Junior/Assistant Race Engineer in 1996, working alongside Jean Alesi. He then became a race engineer in the following year, a role that he held through to 2006 – by which point the outfit had become known as Renault.

This saw him work with a range of different drivers, including Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli. It is a position that the Briton carried fond memories of, having told Beyond The Grid: “That was a great part of my career, being a race engineer, and I still miss it.”

Permane also experienced championship glory while in this position, with Renault winning back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006. And while these came courtesy of Fernando Alonso – who he was not a race engineer for – Permane still enjoyed a victory of his own when Trulli won the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix, a moment he recalled as “pretty special”.

Climbing the ranks and famous radio messages

In 2007, Permane became the chief race engineer at Renault and went on to oversee all trackside engineering from mid-2011 to mid-2016. This took him through another change in the squad’s name, with the team going under the guise of Lotus from 2012 to 2015 inclusive.

While the outfit’s fortunes varied during this period, Kimi Raikkonen claimed one victory apiece in 2012 and 2013. Permane had an infamous radio exchange with Raikkonen at the 2013 Indian Grand Prix, in which he instructed the Finn to “move out of the f***ing way” for team mate Romain Grosjean, who had more pace at that stage of the race.

“Would I change the way I handled it now? Probably, definitely,” Permane told Beyond The Grid. “But I think at the time there was a frustration there, there was a feeling that Kimi was being selfish and wasn’t putting the team where he could have put the team, so that’s where that came from and that’s history.”

In 2016, the team were taken over by Renault again and Permane was appointed as Sporting Director.

Exit from Enstone

As the Enstone-based outfit went through further changes in the years that followed – including a rebranding as Alpine in 2020 – there were some other highlights for Permane, with the squad taking a surprise victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix via Esteban Ocon.

However, the team also experienced plenty of organisational changes and it was confirmed ahead of the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix that Permane and then-Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer would both depart after that weekend.

With this bringing his 34-year stint with the outfit to an abrupt end, Permane spent some time away from the world of F1 – before making a comeback with a different team a few months later...

Return with Racing Bulls

In January 2024, it was announced that Permane would join the then-called RB team – Red Bull’s sister outfit – as Racing Director, reporting to the squad’s new Team Principal Laurent Mekies.

Now, just over 18 months on, a new challenge awaits the Briton as he takes over as Team Principal at Racing Bulls, with Mekies moving to Red Bull as CEO following the departure of Christian Horner.

“I feel very honoured to take on the role as Team Principal and would like to thank Oliver [Mintzlaff, CEO Corporate Projects and Investments] and Helmut [Marko, Red Bull advisor] for the trust they have shown in me,” said Permane.

“I am looking forward to working with Peter [Bayer, CEO of Racing Bulls] to continue the good work that both him and Laurent have done in taking this team forward.

“This is a new challenge for me, but I know that I can count on the support of everyone within them.”