Daniel Ricciardo is set to be given a huge boost heading into the 2024 season with the pending arrival of a familiar face at AlphaTauri.
Ricciardo is due to begin his first full season in Formula 1 since 2022 after coming in mid-season last year at the team having replaced the struggling Nyck de Vries.
After leaving Red Bull, Ricciardo joined the Renault outfit (now Alpine) for two seasons and it was there he worked alongside the highly experienced and valued engineer Alan Permane.
Who is Alan Permane?
Permane has been involved in F1 for more than 30 years and during that time and has worked in the same team as Michael Schumacher as well as Fernando Alonso.
Arguably his best known role was as race engineer to Giancarlo Fisichella in the mid-2000s at Renault where together they helped the team win back-to-back constructors' championships.
Permane was a sporting director at Alpine prior to his departure and while his potential role is not fully known, it is thought he enjoyed a close working relationship with Ricciardo.
Permane at least is thought to be open with working alongside Ricciardo again.
A previous interview commenting on Ricciardo's exit to McLaren from Renault in 2021 saw him tell Beyond The Grid: “Yeah, very sad, honestly.
“There’s not many of them on the current grid and I am only speaking from what I see, the same as everyone else sees.”