The change of regulations in Formula 1 for the 2022 season offered an opportunity for all the teams on the grid, as they would have to create completely new single-seaters.
One team that wanted to take control of the Grand Circus was Alpine, which opted for the return of Fernando Alonso in 2021 to prepare for the transition to this new era of the category with the intention of fighting for the world title.
However, the start of the campaign has not been the best, suffering continuous reliability problems, as happened in the pre-season tests and in the races in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
The company’s CEO, Laurent Rossi , explained at the beginning of the year that the objective would not be to win in the short term, but that they set themselves the goal of being at the top of a hundred grand prix, that is, in 2024, when the power units have frozen several courses.
The FIA announced that engine manufacturers could only make modifications to their engines to improve reliability until the regulation of these elements changes again in 2026, so the French decided to bet everything on power, risking serious setbacks in dropout form.
The head of the engine department at the Enstone team, Bruno Famin , offered an interview to Motorsport.com in which he explained how Alpine faces the future in the Grand Circus.
In his statements he confirmed what Rossi said at the beginning of 2022, wanting more power and defending that reliability is something that they can improve over time.
“All manufacturers are submitting reliability requests to the FIA, so we see that we are not the only ones with problems in this regard. When you talk about a four-year freeze period, there is no other option than to go for the best possible engine. knowing that they will not accept any modification in terms of performance,” explained Famin.
“With the new generation of cars, it’s stiffer, and the hiccups we had were not with the ICE itself, but with components around it, they all have more or less the same problems,” he continued.
“We already have the latest specification, because the 2022 engine is totally new,” said the Frenchman, who also discussed the split-turbocharger concept on the Enstone car.
“It’s better packaging, it’s the kind of choice we made, and it’s not the only one. It’s one of the examples of improving the car to have a lower center of gravity and to have a car that is faster, making us score points. “said the head of engines at Alpine.
The case of the French is very particular, since they are the only ones with a single team that they supply on the grid, so the development and compilation of information has been slower than in the rest of the manufacturers.
From Viry they recognize that it would be an advantage, although they defend their method: “It is always good to have a client team to have a point of reference with which to compare”.
“To do more mileage in pre-season testing, for example, for sure the more we do, the more information we’ll have and the more interesting it will be. Of course it’s a limitation, but it’s still interesting from a technical point of view,” Famin said.
Rumors of a possible motorization appeared in the paddock for the Andretti team, which wants to be part of the grid from 2024, but the leader of the power units does not want to talk about the rest of the teams.
“That’s not in my hands. My priorities are to make Viry even better, and everyone did a great job for 2022, as well as next season,” he said.
“Having the best power unit, but also a better car, working closer and closer with Enstone and maximizing Alpine’s endurance program with which to start racing,” said the French team member.
“The big step is what you see on the grid, because we don’t know the figures of the rest, only ours, we see that the car is going in the right direction. What matters to me is the performance of the car, maybe we could have had better data on the power bank, but with a slower result,” he continued.
“The A522 has been designed to get the best compromise and get the best car, and we will continue to work on that,” Famin said. “We are developing human and technical relationships on a daily basis with Enstone, we are sending the right signals.”
“I think 2022 is already a success in that sense, because we’ve gotten back into the game in terms of performance, and it’s kind of a proof of concept in how we work together, to make everyone happy rowing the boat. same address,” explained Alpine’s engine manager.
Regarding the new engines for 2026, he also offered his point of view, and assured that they must take the necessary time: “You always have to invest, you have to adapt, because we know that the issues of the 2026 regulation are known, although we do not know the number exact number of hours on the power bank”.
“We know the points of the rules, and we are adapting our facilities with this new technology and regulations, but we always have to invest in testing something that is released,” he said.
“The engine, the components, there are always things to learn and we have to optimize the number of hours, so we are working on it. We have started to explore some issues of the new regulation, although it is not finished,” revealed the Frenchman.
“We are already working on Viry, in collaboration with Enstone, and we are at a very advanced stage,” said Bruno Famin during the last Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
