Alpine has reportedly passed the annual FIA crash tests with its 2024 Formula 1 car after recent speculation suggested the team had initially failed the assessments.
Prior to the latest cars hitting the track, each chassis must satisfy a series of impact evaluations by the FIA to ensure safety standards are met in the event of an incident.
However, Motorsport.com’s Italian edition reported that the Enstone squad’s attempt to officially homologate the chassis on the A524 ahead of its unveiling on 7 February.
Heading into the third season with the latest ground effect machinery, Alpine is bidding to recover from a tough 2023 campaign that saw it drop to fifth place in the standings.
The Anglo-French marque had clinched fourth position the previous season, but the team was outdeveloped last term and slipped behind Aston Martin and McLaren.
Failing the crash test at the first attempt could have proven to be a further setback for Alpine heading into pre-season testing, which will begin in Bahrain on 21 February.
But Italian outlet Formu1a.uno has published that sources have informed them Alpine have since made modifications and passed the examination at the second attempt.
Alpine have therefore become the latest team to overcome that particular hurdle in winter development, with Ferrari and Aston Martin rumoured to have also complied.
Nevertheless, it has been common for teams to not pass the test at the first time of asking as the engineers seek to push the boundaries on the performance side of things.
A notorious example came in the first year of the current regulations in 2022 when Red Bull had to make alterations to the RB18 but still stormed to both championships.
Meanwhile, Motorsport Italia published earlier this month that Red Bull’s 2024 challenger had also failed its initial frontal impact test, but this was not confirmed.
The report explained that Red Bull’s stalled progress had derived from attempting to make weight-saving changes to the front nose of the team’s latest creation, the RB20.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner revealed how a 20kg weight reduction was instrumental in the dominance that saw the side win all but one race during last season.
Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s advisor, addressed the speculation, underlining there was no panic and that he would be more concerned if it had passed straight out of the box.
“If we had passed the first crash test, there would have been a problem. Because then we would have done a bad job,” he told F1-Insider.
Horner has been on record as stating the Austrian camp is chasing “diminishing returns” amid stability in the regulations as F1 prepares for the upcoming 2026 change.
