Can Alpine 2023 crawl up to the top teams? They are currently in fourth place at the top of the midfield, but are missing a lot on the top three teams. For comparison: Alpine currently has 144 points, the Mercedes placed before it has 416.
But the French racing team has of course been working on the car for the coming year for a long time, and team boss Otmar Szafnauer says he is “satisfied” with the goals that the racing team has set itself. “Especially with the aerodynamic goals,” he emphasizes.
The concept of the new car should basically remain the same, “but further developed”, according to Szafnauer. “We changed a few things to make better use of rear aerodynamics and we also changed a few things to reduce weight.”
Because: At the beginning of the year, Alpine was one of the whole series of teams that exceeded the minimum weight. “And we still can’t keep it,” reveals the team boss, but promises: “We’ll make it next year.”
Alpine has upgrades for the current cars in its luggage
Incidentally, Alpine still has upgrades for the current bolide in its luggage. A “new” underbody made its debut in Austin, but it’s basically just a “very fine revision” of the Suzuka variant, as sporting director Alan Permane says. But: At least it seems to work. “Our data looks absolutely fine.”
Alpine brought two new floors to Austin and now Mexico, which are assigned to a driver whenever something goes wrong in qualifying. Because if you switch to a different specification after damage, the driver would have to start from the pit lane.
In Austin, Esteban Ocon was allowed to drive with the new underbody, in Mexico it will be Fernando Alonso. “In Brazil we will have another one so both will get it,” promises Permane.
But that should also have been the last upgrade for the A522.