Double presentation for Alpine which in Enstone unveiled not only the A524, which we will see in Bahrain in a couple of weeks, but also its spearhead in the WEC, the A424 Hypercar which will compete in the official LMDh programme. A car that will also see the participation of in the line-up Mick Schumacher in a new chapter of his career.
But returning to Formula 1 let's see what the A524 looks like, single-seater quite different from the previous one. The reason? The disappointing performances of last season and the need to change course after finishing sixth in the constructors' championship, also behind Aston Martin.
The team, led by Bruno Famin, aims to return to the level of performances shown in the 2022 season, when they took fourth position. As in previous seasons, Alpine will compete with a predominantly blue car in the majority of the 24 Grands Prix, but will switch to a pink livery in a further eight races at the request of its main sponsor, BWT.
A necessary change of direction
The difficulties of 2023, with the slower and unreliable A523, have led to significant challenges for Alpine. The French team's journey into the 2023 season has been marked by obstacles, despite two podiums for Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon. The narrow window to optimize performance in 2023 and the delay accumulated towards other teams such as Aston Martin and McLaren made it difficult to understand the single-seater and a new direction was needed for 2024, with a completely revised car. A response that not only aims to erase the difficult year but above all to give a long-range vision to the team that cannot afford to repeat such a year.
Alpine A524: the ever-present pink, but many new features
Some details of the new A524 had already been anticipated on social media, with some details deliberately ostentatious. That is, those relating to the coloring of the muzzle and the bizarre pink texture with a style camouflage which however we did not find on the single-seater presented. Pink which, as always, is present not only on the livery but also on the suits of the drivers Ocon and Gasly. And which refers to the sponsor BWT, which joined the team a couple of years ago at the hands of the now former team principal Otmar Szafnauer.
The A524 we find ourselves in front of is the real single-seater, without filters or tweaks. The departure from the previous single-seater is found both in the livery in which black reigns supreme, to save weight. A lot of paint goes away, and a few lines of blue remain, mixing with pink. The philosophy of the A524 is that of a designer “aggressively oriented towards maximizing potential over the next two seasons. A totally new concept created for the next two seasons and features innovative solutions as a result of learnings from previous iterations“. The February 20 shakedown will give the team and drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon the first clues that some of last season's problems have been resolved.
The words of Bruno Famin
Bruno Famin, Director of Alpine Motorsports, as well as team principal of the team said: "We understood the challenges to focus on. We have completely changed our approach. I'm very curious to see how the new car will respond to the tests. What we see here is the car we will actually take to the track."
technical director Matt Harman instead declared: “The approach to the A524 has been aggressive but deliberate in that we are creating more possibilities to add performance to the car. We focused more on learning and reacting to what we learned from the results. The project was courageous and we focused on realizing the concepts we want to add to the car. We've built a solid platform to add performance whenever possible and set goals to achieve them.”
The question now is whether this bold strategy and the new car will bring Alpine closer to the top teams in the 2024 season.
