In little more than a week, Alpine has gone from depression to ecstasy, or rather, from losing fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship to regaining it, a tight battle that is still in play and that it seems that it will be until the end. of this course against McLaren.
If in Singapore the Enstone team saw how its rivals, after a double abandonment of their cars due to two engine failures, snatched fourth position in the world championship, in Suzuka the situation ended up being completely reversed thanks firstly to the great fourth position by Esteban Ocon, harvested after a great defensive display against Lewis Hamilton.
Without losing sight of Fernando Alonso’s seventh place, which only 11 thousandths took him away from sixth position. That, coupled with a very poor showing from McLaren, who left Japan with just one point thanks to Lando Norris’ 10th place, with Daniel Ricciardo 11th, saw the French team reclaim fourth position in the constructors’ standings.
Alpine right now ranks fourth with 143 points to McLaren ‘s 130 . Although Marina Bay was a weekend to forget for the Gauls, they showed excellent race pace. In Suzuka, the sensations were similar, with the simple difference that reliability did not spoil the celebration of the blue and pink team.
The latest innovations introduced by the Enstone structure, chief among them a completely new fund, helped Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon not only improve their performance against McLaren, but also compared to Mercedes.
Alpine Sporting Director Alan Permane explained that all the progress made by the A522 in recent races, as well as the continued growth shown throughout the season, can be attributed above all to the excellent performance of its wind tunnel.
“The wind tunnel works very, very well. We’re seeing a lot of things that work that we’ve tested work. We had planned an upgrade for Singapore and honestly the results were double what we expected.”
At Suzuka, Alpine used the same bottoming specification introduced in Singapore. That is the fourth different floor of the A522. But in Austin, the next round of the championship, in two weeks, there will be a fifth version, although less flashy than the current one.
“The version used in Suzuka is the fourth. In fact, in Austin it will be a kind of version 4B , because we have another update, but it will not be as big,” confirmed Permane.
