Home Featured Alessandro Alunni Bravi to lead McLaren Driver Development Programme

Alessandro Alunni Bravi to lead McLaren Driver Development Programme

by Ida Wood

Photo: McLaren Racing

McLaren Racing has announced the hiring of Alessandro Alunni Bravi, formerly of Sauber, to be the new head of its driver development programme.

That will be one of several roles which Alunni Bravi will hold in an executive role at the company, which oversees McLaren’s Extreme E, Formula 1, Formula E and IndyCar teams as well as its planned future Hypercar-class prototype sportscar.

When he joins McLaren on February 1, his main responsibility will be chief business affairs officer – a newly created role – and he will report directly to chief executive officer Zak Brown.

He takes over leadership of the McLaren Driver Development Programme from Stephanie Carlin, who has been at its helm since April 2024. She will move to more F1-focused work while continuing to be McLaren’s business operations director.

There has been a lot of rotation in the MDDP leadership over recent years. Carlin succeeded Emanuele Pirro, who also lasted less than a year as its director after being hired in April 2023. The programme took on a more formalised structure at that point, as Brown had been overseeing it akin to a personal project following the signing Ugo Ugochukwu as a junior in March 2021 after he had impressed in Sauber’s karting squad.

McLaren has also poached Alunni Bravi from its F1 rival, where he had been managing director and team representative since 2022 and ’23 respectively. During his time managing the team there was a failure to bring its long-time protege and 2023 Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire into its race driver line-up, and the closing down of the Sauber Academy entirely at the end of 2024, but last year’s F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto was poached from the MDDP to race for Sauber in 2025.

His work with young drivers before that included management roles in the Trident and ART Grand Prix teams in F2, back when the championship was known as GP2 in the 2000s and early 2010s.

“McLaren is a team I’ve been a huge fan of my whole life, and it therefore sparks special emotions personally to have the opportunity to now work with such an amazing group of people,” Alluni Bravi said.

“I’m so grateful to be joining such a great organisation with the values and culture that are so clear to see from the outside. I want to reward the trust and confidence that Zak and the board have put in me by giving my full dedication and effort to help contribute to the continued success, as I believe teamwork is key to everything.”

Brown added: “I’m delighted to have Alessandro joining us with his extensive expertise and motorsport background. Alongside managing our legal and driver development functions, he will also provide invaluable support on all professional driver business management matters, racing governance activities across our various rights holders and governing body relationships and broad business support to all our racing series as needed.”