F1 News
Alpine comes to Imola with "a pretty decent upgrade package"
- GPblog.com
Alpine did not manage to score any points in their 'debut race' in Bahrain. Fernando Alonso didn't make it to the finish and Esteban Ocon didn't get further than thirteenth place. Nevertheless the team is looking forward to the next Grand Prix, because an upgrade package for the car will be available then. It concerns a significant upgrade, Marcin Budkowski of the team told Crash.net.
Becoming more competitive
For Alpine, the primary goal is to become more competitive, so they can fight even more for the points. Although the rules have been changed, there is still room for development and the French team is making the most of it. The developments will take place on the side of the floor and near the diffuser.
The changes are based on the winter test and in the past weeks the team has prepared that for application on the A521. For example, Budkowski says: "There’s an area that’s changed in the regulations which is an area of development at the moment. It’s obviously the side of the floor and the diffuser."
He continued: "We’ve done some work throughout the test and we’ve done some work here (in Bahrain), and no doubt we will do some more work in the next few races. Everybody else will as well. It’s an area that will change."
So that will be another interesting aspect of the cars to keep an eye on this season anyway, because as Budkowski says... the other teams aren't sitting still either.
Significant package
"We have a pretty decent upgrade package coming for Imola, so we’ll have some more new parts and more performance on the car in Imola. And in general, in the first few races of the season, we’ll have some new bits coming through." And they need that, because the car is still a bit short of the teams Alpine wants to fight against.
It is about two to three tenths. Budkowski says that McLaren and AlphaTauri were very strong in Bahrain and also Ferrari, although he expected them to be less strong. Afterwards, according to Budkowksi, Aston Martin and Alpine follow, but even with Alfa Romeo everything is very close together.
"Our objective is to be front of that group rather than at the rear and at the moment we are somewhere in the middle of it, and we are a short of a few tenths to be at the front. “It could be different next race and it’s going to be interesting to watch because people are going to develop their cars a little bit but not that long into the season because of the ‘22 regulations coming so it’s going to be interesting. That midfield is going to be very, very competitive all season long," Budkowski said.