2023 to be cancelled
The 2023 season was one of the most complex in the history ofAlpine, both as regards the performance of the single-seater, the problems related to reliability and organization within the team. In this respect, it is worth remembering the triple dismissal that occurred during the current season Szafnauer, Fry and Permane, Team Principal, Technical Director and Sports Director respectively. A turn of events that did not help the team recover from a dark period, even if for the 2024 expectations are good, despite Esteban Ocon's less than positive comment on the A524.
What went wrong
The Technical Director indicated a climate of optimism Matt Harman in an interview published on the official Formula 1 website, although the British engineer first highlighted the main problems encountered last year: “I think we are been aerodynamically surpassed from some cars – He admitted – part of it has to do with the loading of the car, with the development and with the amount of downforce that we are able to put on the car. Part of it came from understanding how to get performance out of the car and how we drove it. Experiments have been carried out throughout the year to try to get to the bottom of the matter. Some were visible, some were not. We hope to use this learning to try to achieve a more positive outcome this year.
“We weren't able to get comfortable with the car until the second, third and even fourth raceand that's not like us at all – he continued – we have a very capable team of trackside engineers working with the factory, but it took us a while to understand the issues. It wasn't because it was difficult, but because the window for the car to operate was very limited, so we had to compromise. It's complicated. You come to a circuit where driving is important, but we can't push because of the loss of performance. We didn't do as well as we did in 2022, which was a fantastic year. Every time we got closer to developing the car, we increased the load and lightened the weight of the car a lot. In 2023 everything has become more delicate. We had to go into more detail and be careful about how to invest the money.”
Plans for 2024 and beyond
While waiting for the new car, which will be presented on February 7Harman indicated how Alpine wanted to start from scratch for the development of the single-seater without neglecting the projects relating to the new technical regulation of 2026 which will revolutionize the power unit: “The 2024 car will be all-new – he added – and at the same time we must also focus on future projects as we look towards 2026. We have the technology and the ability to take the powertrain where we want it, but we couldn't take more risks than we took. It would have been nice to unlock it in terms of power, but ultimately it's also important to note that we have another power unit to build at the moment for 2026. This is an important priority for the team, and this is where we see our future. Ultimately we decided to focus on the future and we will take care of this power unit over the next two years trying to eliminate some of the losses and doing everything possible within this regulatory framework. We are focused on the future and the regulations of 2026, as well as the cars we will have to produce between now and then. We have great ideas for this. We also have a great program at both the Viry and Enstone sites to improve capacity and function.”
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