Alpine Renault F1: Team Thread

I think that shows us just how much is left under the bonnet- there are seconds - not tenths- worth of performance from everyone still to come. Alpine could have found a couple of seconds from DRS and engine alone by the looks of it.

Interesting- they say they hope there are closer to the front but have tried to allay concerns about it being a poor first test.

I honestly thought they’d be the team to come out like lightning in this new era. Maybe they still can in Bahrain and I suspect their car will look radically different, but a lack of parts and a tentative start with the engine does worry you a little doesn’t it?

Let’s see- development rate will be ridiculous in Bahrain I imagine so let’s see!

 

The Bahrain location and timing of the first race means teams have to have their 95% race 1 package there for this test.

They will all change engines etc for race 1 but they won't be shipping totally new manufactured aero parts put after testing most likely.

We are going to see the full on "intent" of each team imo.

Full performance... not so sure.

 

Absolutely and that’s what I’m getting at- we will see what their “actual” cars look like and we will get loose indications of performance.

I remember Ted Kravitz last year purring over McLaren but then them getting comfortably beaten by the top two in Bahrain. Interestingly this time he is purring over RBR and Merc so let’s hope the big two have been surpassed haha

 

In general merc will have best power surely? Bo reason why not.

 

All depends on what Ferrari and Renault have come up with- unlikely to be ahead of Merc but they ought to be much closer. Ferrari got some very good mileage too considering the new PU and their ERS was majorly improved second part of last season too.

Honda and Merc won’t have been standing still though.

 

I doubt any car was anywhere near race power last week.

Hopefully by 12th March we will know a lot more and have an unpredictable race in Bahrain to look forward to.

 

I agree .

Sad as I was with the final outcome of last years WDC ( not so much who it was , but how it was decided ) , I was pleased it went down to the last race .

I hope for at least similar this year .

I like Williams , I have supported all sorts of teams / drivers over the years ,but I LOVE the sport .

 

To be honest After preseason/testing last year Red bull looked good but the suspicions were that Merc were holding pace back and merc were playing the same "we are slower poor us" card.

All we know so far is that there are a large amount of cars hedging bets on development with rapid changes to aero packages wide open all along the floors of most cars and a lot are revealing identical wing mirrors and slots on the top of side pods so rapid changes are being made.

however what we have seen thus far is ferrari pile in a huge amount of laps as you said but really all the teams did well bar haas and alpha (who might always have intended it due to timing of car launch)

Reliability seems right now to be a given bu theres work to be done by several in stabilising thier cars at speed.

quite a few like aston just pulled out day 3 when it got wet so I have to say the aston might be a dark horse here. Mclaren worked a nice build up of time on track over the test but never delivered much in terms of time so we just don't know where they site nor alpine who actually ran less as the test went on.

hopefully its not a two horse race on the first day but it will be down to power and stability.

 

Is it me or does the Renault PU sound different to the others? Got a bit of a snarl to it whereas the others have got that smoother more ‘electrical’ sound.

Hope it isn’t indicating any problem and so far Ocon is on lap 38 so good mileage for them

 

Alonso quick audio interview on testing.

 

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A flavour of just how fast things are gonna move! Alpine getting a bit of Red Bull side pod treatment in the space of just a week!

 

https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/...resting-test-items-in-practice-says-nick-fry/

Few interesting bits to look out for trialled in FP1 and 2 for Alpine this weekend but looks like first upgrade package for Melbourne

 

Not sure if anything new with the nose or front wing for Alpine but def two different configs.

Watching them with interest in the morning as originally Melbourne was slated as an upgrade I think and the car “looking different” in the wind tunnel.

 

https://cdn-1.motorsport.com/images/amp/2jXBxdg6/s800/alpine-a522-floor-1.webp

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Giorgio Piola seemingly saying that a new floor for Alpine brings them 4kg lighter in weight saving this weekend - my Italian isn’t the best though!

 

Alpine had pencilled in Imola for first significant upgrade I think so let’s see what we get.

Was fabulous to see Alonso mixing it with the front guys in quali in Melbourne- what a competitive animal.

 

Is that a new FW iteration or not? Too one looked a bit different at first glance but I’m not sure

 

They look the same but the top one has a corner missing from nose! Maybe a sensor or camera of some sort?

 

Interesting.
First image: Any ideas what those codes are on side pods?
2nd image: there appears to be a hole behind the side pod cooling inlet, looks like a small panel is missing. Question is really why have such a small panel? Maybe removable to adjust something - maybe a data port or a fluid top up point?