Mercedes and Alpine are miles apart. Mercedes won the constructors' world title last season, Alpine finished fifth from a considerable distance. Mercedes competed for the drivers' title until the last lap, the Alpine drivers finished on places ten and eleven. Yet the teams had a strange similarity.
Remarkable
The German Auto, Motor und Sport came to the remarkable conclusion that Mercedes and Alpine had quite a resemblance: at tracks where Mercedes was strong, Alpine also made its presence felt. Portimao, Barcelona, Silverstone, Budapest, Sochi, Istanbul, Qatar, Saudi Arabia; both cars were good there. The teams failed in Monte Carlo, Baku, Spielberg, Austin and Mexico.
Alpine engineers think they know what the two cars had in common. On tracks where the front tyres struggled, the weakness of Mercedes and Alpine emerged. "Traction was our problem. And our car didn't like bumps," the magazine quotes Alpine employees, who also saw that their car improved significantly after the summer break. This happened despite the lack of updates.
Big jump
Alpine's chassis got better, the engine remained a limitation. After two years of stagnation in development, the Alpine engine is about 35 horsepower short of the competition. In 2022, Alpine will introduce an entirely new engine. "If we can get the engine stable, we will make a big leap," says the team.