Alpine expects to make 'massive step' in downforce with new floor

Two interesting races are coming up for the Alpine F1 team. Sporting director Alan Permane says the new floor is going to provide a particularly large amount of extra downforce. In Singapore and Japan, that will come in handy.

At P4 in the championship, Alpine is currently the best of the rest. The Enstone-based team has taken a slight lead over McLaren, but had to surrender a little of that lead at the last race in Italy. For inexplicable reasons, the team did not have enough speed to finish in the points. While things still looked good and fast at Alpine on Friday, they were not competitive during the race on Sunday. Rival Lando Norris did pick up points with P7.

If Permane is to be believed, Alpine is going to run ahead of McLaren again in the next two Grands Prix in Singapore and Japan. This is because the team is taking to Asia a new floor that is going to provide a massive step in the right direction. On the relatively slow and very curvy Singapore street circuit, that is going to make a big difference. Motorsport.com writes that Permane is not worried about the disappointing performance at Monza and that it was a one-off miss. Things will be very different in Singapore.

Permane says there will be a new floor on the car for Singapore that will provide a huge step in terms of downforce. The team expects to be back where they should be in Singapore. Permane is particularly looking forward to the Japanese GP at Suzuka: "That's going to be fun!"