You Can't Beat Red Bull By Following Them Says Alpine's Technical Director

Thursday, 04 January 2024 at 04:00

Alpine's chassis technical director Matt Harman said his team understands Red Bull's 2023 car but is pursuing their own way.

As opposed to Red Bull, which only increased its lead on the remaining nine teams, Alpine fell back during the 2023 season as the team wasn't able to keep development pace with its rivals.

In 2022, the French team finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship and went into last year's season with great expectations of finally breaking into the top 3, but that didn't happen.

Alpine finished in P6 with a great gap to all the teams in front and has a lot to catch up on during the 2023 winter break. The team's interim principal revealed the team is currently not where they wanted.

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While it might seem to some fans like Alpine is a bit lost in terms of development direction, Matt Harman suggested his team understands what the winning team (Red Bull) is doing at the moment. As quoted by motorsport.com, he said:

"We think we've understood it quite well. We think we understand what they're doing. You can't click your fingers and just imagine it overnight. We understand our direction. But I think we've also understood some of the other cars on the grid as well"

The technical director explained F1 is about looking at other teams, seeing what elements they use and then implying them in your own way.

"There are some other great cars there as well that have got some really interesting developments. And it's about trying to understand what you're doing, what they're doing."

You can never beat somebody by copying them because you will always be a step back. That is why Alpine is currently working on its own concept, and it might take a while for them to make it work. Harman added:

"In the end, if we just follow those people, we will never be in front of them. I think it's a real mantra for us that we need to be inspired by these people, but we need to follow our own way."

On the other hand, some teams like Aston Martin or McLaren built cars largely inspired by and similar to Red Bull, which brought them huge gains. Do you think Alpine is on the correct path?