Esteban Ocon celebrated eighth position at the Miami Grand Prix as if it were a victory. The French driver scored important points for the constructors’ championship, where the Enstone team is sixth with 26 points, after starting from the bottom of the grid.
The accident on Saturday morning, in the third free practice session, prevented him from going out to compete in qualifying: the blow at the exit of turn 14 (the same as Carlos Sainz) was very violent and Ocon acknowledged having hurt himself physically.
Due to this impact, the French driver had to run the race with pain in all parts of the body, feeling at 50%, since the blow was 51G and it was impossible not to leave some bruises.
Despite this, Ocon managed to react and staged a comeback from the back of the grid, but the same cannot be said for the A522’s chassis, which mechanics had to replace with spare bodywork due to the extent of the damage.
Alpine continues to develop the blue-and-pink-tinted car weekend after weekend, adopting a strategy of continuous updates, rather than planning big upgrade packages every four or five rounds, as Ferrari seems to be doing.
In the event held in the most famous city in Florida, we were able to observe two innovations in the A522 , the most visible was, without a doubt, a lighter rear wing, which stands out for a particularity that has nothing to do with the almost flat main profile. , and on the edges of the mobile wing they had always opted for a rounded side bulkhead, maintaining the design conceived by the FIA .
In the solution that they brought to Florida, Alpine modified that area giving it a squarer appearance, showing a new form of development that forces the French structure engineers to seek a different path. The image (above) by Giorgio Piola highlights the area that has been modified with carbon skins that have been placed at a different angle than the original.
The other update is in the area’s double splitter that is shaped like a tea tray. The solution conceived by Aston Martin and later copied by Ferrari and Red Bull, was also adopted by the Alpine in Miami. In the A522 , the two additional wings are curved upwards in search of an increase in the total aerodynamic load of the car, at a point in the car that does not penalize much in terms of air resistance.
