Bruno [Famin] is a highly experienced engine engineer and, between the two of us, you’ll see that [2023] will be a much better show
The Formula 1 paddock’s demographic is generally binary: folk who are in the sport because they love it above all else, and those who are attracted by the world class standards demanded from every pass holder, regardless of discipline, be it in hospitality, marketing, logistics, engineering, on the sporting side or wherever.
Occasionally, though, individuals are attracted to F1 due to its exacting demands, and then develop a deep love for the wider sport, acquiring that crucial winning ethic and with it, an unquenchable thirst for on-track success that simply does not exist outside of motorsport.
One such engineer is Matt Harman, technical director for Alpine F1 Team, effectively the chassis side of the operation, based in Enstone, Oxfordshire. Harman’s pre-F1 background was in civilian and military engines, having cut his technical teeth at Shoreham, UK-based Ricardo – the global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company which focuses on transportation solutions – as a test and calibration engineer ‘I absolutely loved that company, it was one of the best engineering groundings,’ the now 45-year old tells Racecar during an exclusive interview in early December at the team’s base.
With the hectic of the team’s fight for the ‘best of the rest’ title after Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari done and dusted, the engineer-turned-racer has time to share his journey from experimentation to Formula 1.
‘We did so many things [at Ricardo],’ he recalls. ‘Every six months you would do a new project, so anything from a Mitsubishi GDi single cylinder [test
