Alpine have been one of the most ridiculed teams this year in Formula One. The French owned squad began the season with a car vastly overweight and uncompetitive then an internal row in Monaco mid-way threatened to tear the team apart as Esteban Ocon collided with his team mate on the red flagged opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Team boss Bruno Famin was live on French TV at the time and his response to Ocon’s collision with his team mate left some paddock observers incredulous. “This is exactly what we didn’t want to see. Esteban’s attack was completely inappropriate… We will examine the consequences. We’re going to decide whilst it’s still raw.”

Prior to the restart, Ocon was seen leaving the paddock dressed down in civvies with his rucksack slung over his shoulder, clearly the debrief had been extremely short. The consequences were crystal clear before the next Grand Prix weekend as the team and Ocon announced they would be parting company at the end of the year.

 

 

 

Alpine built ‘a new car’ mid-season

Having claimed a single point in Mexico, Alpine had collected just fourteen points across the season and headed into the Sao Paulo Grand Prix second to last and only ahead of the pointless Sauber team. In monsoon conditions and with some help from the safety car, the Alpine duo hauled their cars onto the second and Thord steps of the podium, behind Max Verstappen who drive the race of the century.

This whopping 33 points catapulted them upward in the standings and was enough in the final count to see them sixth on the constructors’ table ahead of both Haas and RB. Yet was this a freak result created by specific climatic conditions and chaos or was it the result of a fourth month long plan to redesign the car which started the season?

Technical Director, David Sanchez described the Alpine F1 car competing towards the end of the season as “pretty much a new car” when speaking to The Race.

Sanchez had left Ferrari to join McLaren, although whilst on gardening leave the senior management structure at the Woking based team had changed. The role Sanchez started with was not what he believed he had signed up for and so by mutual agreement McLaren and Sanchez parted company after just three months with the team.

F1 team bosses not informed of eleventh team U-Turn

 

 

 

Upgrades put on hold as new TD joins

David was snatched up by Alpine as their Technical Director and his arrival in May saw the team pause its efforts in the pipeline to performa a re-evaluation of the development approach and direction. The end result was upgrades in Austin which included a completely revised floor and front end of the car.

As components continued to arrive over the triple header weekends, Alpine were getting closer to the top ten. Then came the result of the decade for a team with just fourteen points and four race weekends to go, a haul of 33 points in the rain soaked race in Brazil.

Yet as Sanchez reveals, all this was not the work of a moment.“When I joined, the limitations of the car were very obvious and the way to try and drag it out of this corner was also quite obvious,” Sanchez tells The Race.

“So that’s why, [in the] first few weeks, we made a status [report] of what we had in the pipeline. While we stopped, we changed the focus of development, especially in aero, and we made a plan to try and deliver a complete upgrade package.

“The hope was to get the car back in line with where it should have been without the wrong directions. And I have to say, in late May, when I started saying ‘let’s try and do this, this and this; there was a lot of, not doubt, but people thinking ‘really, are we sure?’.

Ex-Ferrari boss questions motive for recruiting Hamilton

 

 

 

McLaren stint gave Sanchez insight

Sanchez claims the team worked particularly hard over the Sumer break (without breaking FIA enforced holiday rules of course) as they revised the fundamental principles of the A524 car design. “We got that big upgrade package in Austin, which was pretty much a new car. Then with the wing [in Qatar], it’s a new car in a period of, let’s say, four months. And that got the car back in a nice place,” revealed the Alpine TD.

Of course Sanchez short stint at McLaren wold have give him insight into how the most improved F1 team in the past two seasons go about their work. What has become clear is the new ground effect cars cannot be committed to the kind of upgrade programmes teams used during previous F1 car design regulations.

The correlation between the aero tools of the wind tunnel and CFD are now crucial to a formula One team’s success. Ferrari headed down a blind ally during the summer with their upgrades, but came back strong after the summer break having the quickest car at several of the autumn weekends.

Under the current ground effect car design regulations, the F1 teams have had to redefine how they use the data generated by the simulation tools which either confirm an upgrade is working or reject it before full scale production.

Former F1 star brands Lawson as “arrogant”

 

 

 

Ground effect car data more difficult to interpret

“That was one aspect of having clarity of the direction, the sort of characteristics we were looking for, but also using all the tools available and not simply focusing on the windtunnel in a very specific area of the map,” adds Sanchez.

“These days, CFD is very good and it gives a lot more information, it’s where we design the car. So instead of saying well the wind tunnel is the tool for aero, it’s one of them.

“There are a few others; there’s data from the race car, there is CFD data showing what the flow is like, how to manipulate it and then the windtunnel is another layer. And [it’s about] trying to blend all these three environments, you try and build a lot of confidence in where you’re trying to get to.

“But also, if what you’re doing is healthy, if the wind tunnel is happy, but the CFD says don’t go there, you shouldn’t go there.”

Weak opponents surprise Verstappen

 

 

 

Fine tuning rather than big setup changes

Aston Martin appear to be suffering from an outdated approach to in season development work as they search for peak downforce improvements rather than delivering a stable platform which can be tweaked. It appears Alpine changed tack from this type of methodology and the 2025 season snow one of anticipation.

The ‘new’ Alpine car sliced a massive amount of the deficit to ihefront runners. Prior to Austin the team had been 2% slower across the previous six race weekends. This was slashed to 0.8% across the final six.

Sanchez reveals whilst the setup of the car had to change, the numbers would reveal that the changes were moderate. “It had to shift, yes,” said Sanchez. “If I were to quote ride height numbers, you would say they didn’t change by so much, but just enough to go away from the porpoising window and to have a more compliant car.

“You could run it incredibly stiff if you find a very smooth track [and] you don’t touch the kerbs, but most of the time it needs that bit of compliance. And this was part of what we tried to achieve.

“You mentioned yaw sensitivities and all these [other factors], the narrower the window you aim for, the easier it is. The reality is the race car has an envelope on the track and aero development has to fully cover the envelope and more. And there you can clearly see on the edge if the car is benign, if it’s going to buy it, and this is where you get to a high quality car.”

Alpine remain stuck in the F1 midfield  but there appears light at the end of the tunnel, that in David Sanchez the team are moving in the right direction.

“F**K OFF” Red Bull hits back

 

 

 

RB now explain why Richard F1 return failed

Those who follow Formula One are often less partisan than fans of other sports and will support multiple teams and drivers. Of course in contradiction of this postulation is the tifosi who treat Ferrari as the national racing team of Italy.

Then there are drivers who garner fanatical support as has Lewis Hamilton, whose fan base display similar traits to the tifosi and have been so named by TJ13 as the Hamfosi. Lewis is somewhat pf a marmite character in F1, yes he is statistically the most successful driver the sport has ever produced, but debates often rage as to whether he can really be the GOAT.

Then there are drivers who come along in F1 who are universally loved by the fans and in the latest generation of drivers Daniel Ricciardo was that man. The loveable Aussie came to prominence when he was promoted by Red Bull alongside the current four times world champion Sebastian Vettel and over the course of the 2014 season he comprehensively dismantled his team mate finishing the championship some 71 points ahead of the German ace… READ MORE