Alpine’s Formula 1 boss Bruno Famin is confident that the team’s choice to pursue a radical overhaul with its 2024 car, the A524, will not prove to be a gamble.
Alpine made a promising start to F1’s most recent set of ground effect regulations introduced in 2022 by finishing fourth in the Constructors’ standings with 173 points.
However, last term the squad found itself slipping down the pecking order, behind McLaren and Aston Martin to wind up sixth in the championship with 53 fewer points.
This has prompted a change in the team’s design philosophy, with Technical Director Matt Harman outlining that the A524 “is completely new from front to back.”
While the decision to part with the understanding gained from its predecessor with a revamped design could be seen as high-risk, Famin doesn’t see it that way.
“I think there is no gamble,” Famin said at the unveiling of the car at Enstone. “We worked hard to develop a totally new car.
“Everything that was possible to change as per the regulations we changed it, almost I think.
“I think it’s due to two reasons. The first one is because we learned from the past, of course.
“We learned about aero, we learned about tyres, we learned about tyre performance and tyre degradation, of course, and the second reason is that, and I think we are not the only one, we have in 2026, a totally new regulation coming by the middle of 2024 and I think we will need a lot of resources to start working on the 2026 project quite early in the season.
“The 2025 car maybe might be only a mild evolution of the 2024, and it was important to make a big step in 2024.
“There’s a lot of new things, a lot of new car and we don’t know absolutely where we are going to be on the grid.
“What will be important is the ability to develop the car, a totally new car during the season. This is what, together with the improvement we can make in the team will work.”
The raft of changes made by the Enstone squad includes a completely redesigned chassis, a new rear suspension system, an optimised front suspension system, a new heat rejection system, revisions to the thermal management of the brakes, “aggressive” development on the floor and changes to the front wing and nose.
Alpine has measured risk versus reward with its design revolution – a philosophy that driver Pierre Gasly is aligned with.
The Frenchman stated: “You’ve got to take risk at some point if you want to get bigger rewards, so that’s the strategy we decided to go for.”
However, Gasly admits the team knows “the start of the year might not be as good as we like” outlining that patience is key in its bid to unlock performance.
Esteban Ocon added that a slow start is “a possible scenario because we have a new concept, the car is totally new and when you usually do that you normally take a step back.”
When asked if Alpine will encounter a difficult start to the 2024 campaign, Famin responded by saying: “Maybe, maybe it’s possible. “We don’t know to be honest
“We don’t know but I think we are not the only one developing a very new car.
“We don’t know at all where we will be but the start of the season, it may be difficult, It may be not so difficult.
“We have just no clue yet. We have an idea of where we think we are compared to last year, but we have no clue about where are the competitors. We will see after a couple of races.
“But again, I think [in] the end the performance will be in our ability in developing that new car.
“We know that to be competitive and [having] a good season, you need a good car and you need to develop it well.”
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