Passing Crash Tests On First Time Would Mean Alpine Wasn't 'Ambitious Enough'

Sunday, 11 February 2024 at 08:00

The team principal of Alpine, Bruno Famin, addressed the fact that his team hadn't passed all crash tests on the first try.

Earlier in the year, there were speculations (later confirmed) that the Red Bull Racing team didn't pass their first crash test, which was suggested to be a major roadblock in Red Bull's progress.

However, Red Bull's team advisor, Helmut Marko, laughed at the speculations, saying the problem would be exactly the opposite if his team passed the tests on the first attempt.

"Ridiculous. If we had passed the first crash test, there would be a problem. Then we would have done a bad job."

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The goal of every team is to make their car as light as possible because every gram spared makes their car faster. The lighted the chassis is, the more fragile in general it will be.

Many teams will often go over the limit and test the boundaries during their first homologation, where they feel like they might have a chance to pass but count on the fact that they probably won't.

Alpine was in a similar situation when the team didn't pass some of their crash tests on the first attempt. Bruno Famin addressed this matter in an interview with motorsport.com.

"We had to redo some tests, some homologations tests. But I think it's just the normal process."

The French team has been clear in communication during the car launch, saying they pushed some elements beyond the limit in some cases. Famin added that passing the crash test on the first time would mean a team wasn't ambitious enough.

"If you pass all the tests the first time, it means that you have not been ambitious enough. So, let's see what will be the final result, but the fact of having to redo some tests is not at all a criticism.