Alpine wants to greatly improve and is doing so by taking inspiration from Scuderia Ferrari: the French brand is introducing new solutions at every Grand Prix in an attempt to contend for fourth place in the Constructors’ World Championship against McLaren, given that the Woking team is only eight points ahead, but no one would have imagined that the technicians directed by Pat Fry made a double change of strategy in terms of aerodynamic choices.
If the A522 was oriented in development by going towards the Red Bull philosophy, at Silverstone we witnessed a drastic change of direction, following the choices made by Ferrari. The Alpine is a single-seater that was appreciated for its top speeds on the straight, while it seemed to lack downforce.
To try to balance its characteristics, the aerodynamicists from Enstone did not hesitate to transform their car in the direction that was dictated by Ferrari’s design, with the introduction of the excavation in the upper part of the sidepods.
The solution, being applied to a car that is already designed in another way, is significantly different from that of the F1-75, but the concepts that have been applied are the same with the aim of improving the behavior of the A522 on slow section, where the downforce matters more than efficiency.
And then it should not be surprising if shark gill slits have appeared on the sidepods that has become very hollow, which have the task of expelling the heat of the Renault power unit, but what is striking is the presence of a channel that makes the flow in depth above an unprecedented side.
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The Alpine, therefore, tries to intersect the Red Bull-style choices with an upper part of the sidepods that becomes blatantly similar to that of the Ferrari car. In Enstone they made a big bet to try to stop McLaren and a good dose of courage must be recognized in drastically changing their concept when we have not yet reached the middle of the season. It will be interesting to see if so much effort will give the desired results …
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