Who is the new Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane? All you need to know about Permane

Racing Bulls have appointed Alan Permane as its team principal for the rest of the 2025 season. Parmane's appointment came after Red Bull appointed Laurent Mekies as its team principal after the surprising dismissal of Christian Horner from the Milton Keynes-based team.

Permane, aged 58, is a British F1 engineer who hails from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. He is the former sporting director at the Alpine F1 team, and resigned from his post, and joined Racing Bulls in 2024.

Alan Permane joined F1 with Benetton back in 1989 as their test electronics engineer. He was promoted to the role of a race engineer in 1996, and then worked in the same role from 1997 to 2006 for the same team, but under a rebranded Renault F1.

At this time, the British engineer worked with drivers such as Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella. In 2007, Alan Permane became the chief race engineer for the same team, and four years later, he became the Chief Operating Officer.

Alan Permane was promoted to the post of Sporting Director of Lotus F1 (same team but rebranded name) in 2012. He remained with the same team (rebranded again as Renault, and subsequently, Alpine ) till the end of July 2023. Following this, he joined Racing Bulls at the start of 2024 as the racing director.

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Red Bull dismissed Christian Horner to put Alan Permane's predecessor Laurent Mekies in charge

Red Bull sacked its team principal, Christian Horner, with immediate effect on Wednesday. The shocking decision from the Austrian team has come days after the 2025 British GP, where Red Bull once again had an underwhelming weekend.

Christian Horner during the team principals press conference ahead of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit- Source: Getty

According to reports, the top brass of Red Bull Racing held multiple meetings involving Horner and the Verstappen camp (Max Verstappen, his father Jos Verstappen, and his manager, Raymond Vermeulen). In the meeting, Horner's performance as the Team Principal was questioned by the higher authorities as well as the Verstappen team.

The meeting was said to have happened with Oliver Mintzlaff, the CEO of Red Bull GmbH, and the subject matter of the meeting was to bring a change in Red Bull's senior leadership. Interestingly, the rumors of Verstappen moving to Mercedes also played a big part amid the constant downward spiral of Red Bull Racing in terms of performance.

Horner joined Red Bull in 2005, soon after Red Bull GmbH bought the Jaguar F1 team. From then on, the British boss has been at the helm of affairs at the Milton Keynes-based team, and helped them win eight drivers' titles and six Constructors' Championships.