“I had been waiting for this car for a year and a half and I am very satisfied. I returned to Formula 1 due to the change in regulations and now we have to see where we are.” Fernando Alonso could not hide his satisfaction at the presentation of the Alpine A522. The French car hopes to revive old laurels from when they won the World Cup in 2005 and 2006 with the Asturian pilot, who is more committed than ever to the idea of winning his third championship.
Alpine is a free verse within the paddock of Formula 1. They are the only ones that mount a Renault engine, something that can come either very well or very badly, depending on how you look at it. The fact is that they had 30 saved horses that will now come to the fore in search of shaking the foundations of Formula 1 after presenting a very radical and sharp design. The pontoons, the air intakes and the design have captivated all Formula 1 fans for their innovation.
Now it will be the Montmeló circuit that will act as judge in the first training sessions of the season that will take place from this Wednesday. Alpine was the fifth team in the Constructors’ World Championship last season and aspires to reduce the distance with a McLaren team that disappointed in its presentation, while also knowing that both Mercedes and Red Bull do not have as much work on this 2022 prototype because of their battle until the last race in the last World Cup.
In the aesthetics of the car, a pink color that is associated with its sponsor BWT, an Austrian water manufacturer that competes with Red Bull, draws powerful attention. For the first two races the Alpine A522 will wear all-pink skin before returning to its traditional dominant blue with pink accents. The team will have a significant economic injection with the entry of this sponsor to invest in improvements to the car.
The 2022 season is a blank book, but everyone remembers that in 2009 -in another change in regulations- Formula 1 was blown up with the innovative double diffuser from Brawn GP. The one that was the worst team on the grid and with the worst budget became world champion with Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso hopes that his engineers have been able to copy something from that Cinderella story. For now, the presence of Pat Fry as chief engineer guarantees that they will be in the ointment after becoming a legend at McLaren and Ferrari in the last three decades.
Alpine is optimistic about their chances because they have the most experienced driver on the grid in an Alonso who has not lost his hunger to win. the Asturian He knows the path to follow to add victories and will set a very high bar from the first training Fasten your seatbelts because the Formula 1 season begins with the most uncertainty in history.