Pierre Gasly (FRA) Alpine F1 Team A523. 29.07.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 13, Belgian Grand Prix, Spa Francorchamps, Belgium, Sprint Day.
Alpine Technical Director Matt Harman sees “no reason” why the side can’t achieve its pre-season ambition of possessing the fourth fastest car by the end of the year.
The Anglo-French outfit opened the campaign by outlining it intended to consolidate the fourth-place finish it earned in the Constructors’ Championship last term.
However, Alpine has endured a tough season to date, only accruing 57 points across the first 12 races to slump behind Aston Martin and McLaren to sixth in the standings.
Consequently, Alpine announced over the Belgian Grand Prix weekend that Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane would be leaving the team.
When asked why Alpine has stagnated since Esteban Ocon clinched a podium in Monaco, Harman told Auto Motor und Sport, “We can’t bring major upgrades to every race.
“At the start of the season, we threw a lot of new parts into the fray. Our competitors were later. So we just took a little breather.
“Our third development phase began with the front wing, which was continued in Spa with a new underbody. We hope that this will also have an impact on the results soon.
“We haven’t changed our goals. We want to be the fourth-best team and I see no reason why we shouldn’t be able to do that by the end of the season.”
Despite Ocon’s exploits around the twisting streets of Monte Carlo achieving Alpine’s best result of the year, Harman states Alpine’s A523 continues to have a performance deficit in slow-speed corners.
“I think the fluid curves suit us better,” he summarised. “The new front wing should underline this. We still have work to do in the slow corners.”
Alpine F1 Team practices a pit stop. 29.07.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 13, Belgian Grand Prix, Spa Francorchamps, Belgium, Sprint Day.
While a multitude of teams tended to bring larger upgrade packages spaced out throughout the year in 2022, Alpine opted for an aggressive development philosophy of deploying new parts at almost every round.
Harman has confirmed that the Enstone squad will bring new parts beyond the summer break, whilst also revealing work on its 2024 car has already begun.
“You’ll see upgrades even after the summer break,” he stated.
“We started on the new car in week 40 of last year, before the 2023 car had its first race. This is so common in our business today.
“The design process for the A524 is already in full swing. After the summer break, we will sit down and decide when to allocate the bulk of our resources to the coming year.”
The British engineer adds that Alpine continues to have scope for development within the budget cap set for this year.
“We got our new car up and running on the budget we were given,” Harman noted. “That’s why we didn’t have to cut anything from our development budget. We’re still on schedule.
“Also because we do almost everything in-house. We budget for an underbody that will deliver X lap times, which is cheaper than having it made outsourced.”
Keyword: Alpine still confident of becoming ‘fourth best team’ in F1 2023