Alpine completely change direction: 'Only the steering wheel is the same'

Presentations of new Formula 1 cars are always moments of fine words. A lot of joy and high expectations. With Alpine, it was no different on Wednesday afternoon. The French team presented the A524 at their factory in Enstone, England, and the feeling about the car was positive.

During media interviews with the executives within Alpine, it quickly became clear that the French have given the car a total overhaul: "It's a brand-new car from front to back. I think only the steering wheel survived. So we've really tried to look at every single area of the car to make sure that we leave no stone unturned. And we give ourselves a car that can have potential through the year. We plateaued a little bit in 523 and I think with this car, we have that potential."

Alpine had a complex challenge

For the front wing, the team switched to a completely different philosophy. "It's very complex. It's very important with the brakes, as I'm sure you're all aware with your cars that you drive every day. It's very important to be consistent and precise. And both Esteban and Pierre really do need to be consistent and precise on the braking system. That's the first order. But after that, it's also an aerodynamic device. We need to cool the brakes, we need to cool the callipers, we need to cool the brake disc, but we also need to manage the temperature going into the tyres. And that's done by a combination of not just the blankets that you'll see on the television but also the manner in which we let heat pass through into the carcass of the tyre. So we spent a lot of time on this."

The front suspension is a similar concept to the A53, but slightly further optimised. "If we move further back, one of the big areas that we focused on this year was the chassis. We made sure that we squeezed every single thing that we could. We need to make sure the driver is comfortable. Esteban, don't worry, you will be comfortable in the car," laughed the technical director.

"It's really, really important for their ability to drive. But equally, we also need to push.  We need to push the structures, and we also need to give the underbody of the car the ability to increase the flow rate through the car. But fundamentally, the chassis has been designed to give us the maximum amount of volume for our aerodynamicists to express themselves freely in terms of concepts, not only for the launch car, but for the first, second, third, fourth race upgrades."