There is still just under a month left until the start of the presentations of the 2024 single-seaters, but behind the scenes these are hot weeks for the Formula 1 teams, who are preparing the start of the world championship by starting to assemble their respective cars.
An intense period, in which the first switching on of the new single-seaters which will then go on to compete in the championship also takes place. Among the first to have carried out the fire-up this season is Alpine: in the Enstone factory the first “beat” of the heart of the A524 took place, the new single-seater which will be presented on 7 February together to the A424 LMDh which will race in the WEC.
The first start-up of an engine is always a special and unique moment for a team, the culmination of months of work behind the scenes. Furthermore, it also represents a first fundamental test, useful for ensuring that all the various systems, such as the electrical and hydraulic ones, are functioning correctly before the start of the pre-season tests in Sakhir, Bahrain. To ensure that everything works as expected even on the move, a filming day is generally also carried out, which from this season goes from 100 to 200 km.
To celebrate the fire-up of the single-seater, Alpine has released a video of just over a minute in which, with an eloquent shot, we can hear the turbo V6 made by Renault and designed in the team's other headquarters, in Viry. As in the last three seasons, the transalpine team will be the only one to use Renault engines, given that the latest customer, McLaren, switched to Mercedes engines in 2021, also obtaining a victory that had been missing for almost a decade.
After a 2023 which represented a year of internal changes, both in managerial and organizational terms with the farewell of Otmar Szafnauer and the promotion of Bruno Famin in the role of Team Principal, Alpine is called to take a step forward, although having to come up against one's limits. At the beginning of last season there were positive signs in terms of performance, so much so that the possibility was even hypothesized that the A523 could challenge Mercedes and Ferrari in some events. However, the team and the drivers were unable to realize the potential of the car in a favorable phase of the world championship, collecting few points compared to what the package put on track would have deserved.
However, there was no shortage of difficulties during the season, especially with regards to aerodynamic development. The French team was in fact unable to maintain the pace of its opponents, slipping back on the grid, although it was still the protagonist of some excellent exploits, such as the fourth place obtained in Las Vegas, an event where in reality the team leaders believed they had to encounter some more problems due to the shortcomings on the engine level.
For 2024, several changes will be made on several fronts: the chassis will be streamlined, in order to guarantee the aerodynamic engineers greater design freedom, which should also unlock some updates that remained pending in the last championship. Furthermore, as regards the Power Unit, the team is working on new software that will help improve the management of the hybrid part, one of the Achilles' heels of the French unit: the new code will not solve all the problems, but it should guarantee more efficient use of energy. The development of the A524 actually started very early, so much so that the official drivers were able to test a first version of the new car on the simulator as early as September, earlier than what happened in previous seasons.
On the drivers front there will be no news, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly confirmed at the wheel of the A524. However, there will be some important reflections on this very topic: both drivers are out of contract at the end of the season, so it will be essential to understand how to move on the market, without forgetting the Audi sirens, which would be interested in Ocon.
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