24 hours after its premiere on the track of Circuit of Barcelona Catalonia and less than a month before the start of World Cup in Bahrain, the most significant details of Alpine’s new car, the A522have been hidden in the presentation made this Monday in Paris.
Following the trend set by most of the teams that in recent days have shown their cars for the current season, what has been seen is little more than the standard car provided in its day by Liberty with the specifications of the new regulation that comes into force. force in 2022, with ground effect and 18-inch tires, yes, already wearing the new colors and logos of its sponsors, especially the pink of BWT.
The true potential of the car they will drive this year Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon It won’t start to be felt until a few weeks, after the second round of testing in Bahrain (March 11-13) and above all, after the first four or five grand prix. In the ‘great circus’, the secrets in the design of the new single-seaters consist of skirting the legality established by the FIA and F1 regulations. That is, everything that is not detected when homologating the car is valid. Hence, everyone is careful to ‘hide’ their best assets in terms of aerodynamics.
The ‘heart’ of the Alpine
Apart from the aesthetic changes and at the chassis level, the key to the new Alpine is in its ‘heart’, the powerful engine developed at the Viry Chatillon factory. After the power deficit was the main problem of the A521, the technical team led by Bruno Famin has spent many months on the new propellant. The freezing of engines until 2025 in F1 will be crucial, which is why the French team has opted to gain as many horses as possible, even at the cost of reliability, on which they will be able to continue working.
“The engine has been completely redesigned. It is completely new. First of all, we have separated the turbine, but that is only the visible part. We have also made the engine more compact, that allows us to place it closer to the pilot and thus change the position of the center of gravity”explains the CEO of the team, laurent rossi. Alpine hardly evolved the car last year because they were focused on the 2022 car and the engine was the fundamental part of this work. “The engine is lighter and can run in a wider range of conditions, including temperature and pressure. So for us this is a real opportunity to turn things around. Hopefully that will allow us to close the gap further.” with the leadersadds Rossi, who in recent months has undertaken a complete restructuring of the technical department at Viry and Enstone and has replaced Marcin Budkowski by Otmar Szafnauerformer Aston Martin and new Team Principal.
Goodbye to the ‘hump’
In the studio images of the real car, not the one seen in Paris, some surprises can be seen. One of the big differences compared to the 2021 car is that the new A522 eliminates the intake on the pilot’s head and the much talked about ‘beluga-type’ hump. The engine cover is much smaller, thanks to extra cooling from the gills, Ferrari-style. The nose, thinner and more rounded, is another sign of identity of the French car. The pontoons also stand out, but not the ailerons, which are much less risky. Matt Harman, the technical manager, explained at the presentation of the car that a “key” element is in the ‘sidepods’, the upper part of the pontoons, which incorporates one of the car’s two gill areas. The side ends of the car to channel the air bring another surprise. Alpine has published the main technical specifications of the single-seater that we will see on the track this Monday.
The FIA will give flexibility in terms of new car parts and wing flexibility testing, taking into account the technical challenge of the new era of the championship. “For the first three rounds of the 2022 Championship, the FIA reserves the right to increase the allowed flex or reduce the load applied in any test referred to in article 3.15, to adapt to the introduction of new measurement procedures,” he has advanced. Nikolas Tombazis, FIA single-seater director. Or what is the same, “the regulation allows us to intervene if we detect any abuse in certain areas.” A warning to ‘navigators’.