Alpine Another Team To Promise 'Completely New Car From Front To Back'

Sunday, 21 January 2024 at 15:00

Alpine's technical director, Matt Harman, promised a completely new car for the 2024 season in a recent interview.

Many teams that struggled or didn't perform as they wanted to in 2023 promised great changes ahead of the upcoming season. These include, for example, Mercedes, Williams, and Ferrari.

Alpine F1 team's technical director Matt Harman suggested in his recent interview that the French car will also undergo significant changes before 2024. One of the main focus points was weight. According to Formula 1, he said:

"We didn’t do as well as we did on the A522 – we had a great year that year. Every time we touched the development of the car, we put load on, and we took a lot of weight off the car – there was a lot of performance to be had."

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Each kilogram of weight in F1 cars makes a big difference. It is widely estimated that one kilogram of weight equals 0.035 seconds per lap. To better illustrate how crucial it is, qualifying sessions in 2023 were decided by thousands of seconds.

"It’s become trickier. You have to get into more detail so we have to be more careful in how we invest the money. I don’t think this year has been as successful as the A522."

Alpine found itself stuck in a development place where they only added weight with each upgrade and the technical director explained it had to be completely redesigned as a consequence.

"That’s why for the following year’s car we have had to unlock some real estate again, which is why the car is completely new from front to back. You’ll see that up and down the grid because the car has to last for a couple of years while we look for the future."

The 2024 cars will be critical for the French team's success not only in 2024 but in 2025 as well as a big part of the winter break that comes after the upcoming season will be already devoted to producing a new car for 2026 regulations.

The wholly redesigned Alpine car is set to be revealed on 07.02.2024. Can the team deliver its drivers a more competitive car? We will have some first indications in 17 days.