As part of an ongoing management restructure, Alpine F1 has announced that it has recruited John Woods to fill the role of chief operating officer at Enstone where he will help oversee an expansion of facilities.
The appointment echoes a move within the team’s powertrain base in Viry, where parent company Renault has appointed team veteran Audrey Vastroux to a comparable role.
It’s all part of the ongoing tweaks to the way the team is run following the break-up of Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permane as team principal and principal respectively after last year’s Belgian GP.
Alpine’s vice president of motorsport, Bruno Famin, then took over the team, initially on an interim basis, but will now take on that role heading into 2024.
Woods and his counterpart Viry will oversee the facilities at their respective venues, allowing Famin to run the race team itself.
“The COO position is very much an administrative position,” Famin told Motorsport. com this week. “And we want someone who knows how it works. “
“[Woods] is a factory guy, and that’s what I want to run the plant,” he continued. “At the moment he is at Lotus Cars and has been at McLaren Automotive for quite some time.
“He will not interfere with the technical director,” Famin emphasised. “His role will be to give the technical director and the sporting director the means to work, following budget, compliance, etc.”
©Alpine
Despite his experience at McLaren and Lotus, Woods’ experience to date has focused on sports cars rather than F1, but that’s not a challenge for Famin.
“He’s a very pragmatic guy. It’s not an F1 type, but we don’t want an F1 type for that,” he explained. “He’s very experienced, he’s very pragmatic and he’s close to the people.
“He’s willing, he’s not afraid to make changes and he’ll have a new vision of what we’re doing,” Famin added.
“I hope those two COOs of Enstone and Viry will support me and everyone here.
“With 24 races a year, it’s hard to be away. It’s smart to have someone there,” he said. “Having someone 100 percent grounded in Viry and someone 100 percent grounded in Enstone is going to help with the day to day or consistency with things. “
©Alpine
In the past, Woods worked at Group Lotus in roles, adding head of production for 11 years starting in 2005. He worked at McLaren Automotive as head of new style launches from 2016 to 2023 before briefly returning to Lotus last year.
Her counterpart at Viry, Audrey Vastroux, joined Renault in 2005 as an engine control engineer in 2006. Since then, she has held various positions within the organization, from head of the Project Management Office to Director of Testing and Operations.
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