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At Maranello, Fantoni worked alongside David Sanchez, who joined Alpine in May as executive technical director.<\/a><\/p>\n Sanchez is being credited by insiders as playing a large role in Alpine’s revival after a difficult start to this season.<\/p>\n Sanchez, who joined Alpine after leaving a new role at McLaren after just three months this year, is said to have been able to quickly instigate new ways of operating the car to increase its performance.<\/p>\n In addition to a programme of weight loss, which has brought the car down to the minimum weight limit, this has led to a significant change in fortunes.<\/p>\n Alpine started the season as the slowest team on the grid but have begun to consistently qualify at the back of the top 10, scoring points in each of the last four races.<\/p>\n Signing Sanchez was a significant move after months of turmoil dating back to last summer, when they sacked their chief executive officer Laurent Rossi, team principal Otmar Szafnauer, sporting director Alan Permane and operations director Rob White – and lost their chief technical officer Pat Fry, technical director Matt Harman, head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer and engineering consultant Bob Bell.<\/p>\n