Today's Formula 1 presentations have become almost exclusively vernissages dedicated to showing – the already questionable – liveries and sponsors of the teams rather than the shapes, ideas and expectations of the new single-seaters.
In this, however, Alpine stood out with the presentation ceremony of the A524, which took place last February 7, in Enstone. Matt Harman, technical director of the French team, explained the interventions made on the new single-seater which will be entrusted to the French duo formed by Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
“We know that the power units are widely homologated, but that doesn't mean they are completely untouchable. There are a reasonable number of things we can do to make sure we install the engine in the car in the best possible way. It's very important to do that.”
“We've done a lot of calculations on how not to waste the engine's potential. For example, we've integrated the exhaust coming out into the suspension around the transmission to reduce pressure loss. This way we make sure that every bit of work done by the propulsion is delivered to the drive shaft and, therefore, to the rear wheels”.
Alpine A524
Photo by: Alpine
“We also moved the ERS unit and the battery pack further back, so as to have better weight distribution on the car. The amount of weight we moved is quite considerable.”
The A524 was also the subject of a study to make it slimmer than the 2023 single-seater. The team led by Harman focused on reducing the weight of the transmission components to thus develop greater performance.
“We took a considerable amount of weight off the drivetrain. To do that, we did a lot of work to make sure everything worked as it should. It was validated in line with our full test rig, where we also have the entire system of transmission with the control unit, all the injection systems and every part of the car. The analysis exceeded 3,500 kilometres”.
Alpine A524
Photo by: Alpine
Alpine has also focused a lot on improving the cooling of the power unit, thus trying to improve its performance by bringing in more fresh air capable of allowing the drive unit to better exploit its characteristics.
“One of the things you can't see is the lower part of the body, and underneath that is what we call the interior body,” Harman continued.
“This allows us to control the entire mass flow through the car from the beginning, when it enters the bellies, up to the rear. This means that we can optimize the cooling behavior of the car.”
“In 2023 we were forced to open the bodywork more than we would have liked. This year we think we are in a better position. We should have less aerodynamic resistance of the car, therefore more possibility of obtaining better lap results.”
Alpine A524
Photo by: Alpine
“We have controlled the thermal behavior a lot. For example, we try not to cool the exhausts. Of course, it seems counterintuitive, but cooling the exhausts takes away their energy. And if you remove energy from the exhausts, there isn't as much power left in the crank. So We try to make sure we use air where it's needed and not where it's not needed.”
“Our approach, as already said, has been very aggressive. We will see where we are when we go to test in Bahrain, but we will not stop improving this car. We have enormous potential to extract and we have not yet managed to exploit it” .
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