Bahrain Grand Prix: a slow start for Alpine
A complicated first day of testing for the French team, as Les Bleus struggled to raise their performance level against the rest of the field!
After a 2020 season marked by three podiums but also many missed opportunities, Alpine, formerly Renault F1 Team, was determined to catch up with its competitors at the top of the grid. The signing of their former star Fernando Alonso and a promising Esteban Ocon aims to galvanize the team while targeting the 3rd place in the constructors’ championship.
Despite this, the team struggled at the beginning and seems to be lagging behind on a quick lap compared to McLaren and Aston Martin. In fact, both drivers completed laps during the two sessions (87 laps in total) without ever placing the A521 in the top 10.
Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon completed laps during both sessions (87 laps) without ever placing the A521 in the top 10.
Respectively ranked 15th and 16th in FP1 (session summary here) then 11th and 15th in FP2 (session summary here), Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso remain quite far from McLaren, their true opponents for 2021. The Alpine drivers were still more than half a second off the pace.
« We don’t watch the clock”, said Laurent Rossi, general manager of Alpine, on Canal + microphone after Free Practice 1. « We spent the session doing aero tests so we stored what we had to store… We are actually happy with our run.”
Alpine is standing out this season by using an extremely wide engine cover compared to the rest of the field, a chimney that may indeed remind one of the Tyrell 006 of Francois Cevert in 1973. The wider air intake design lies in Alpine engineers’ choice to narrow the car at the level of the sidepods by removing radiators. These same radiators have therefore been placed higher in this A521, at the engine cover level.
At the end of this first day of testing, the two drivers show the same optimism by ensuring the real potential of this machine powered by a Renault engine. According to Ocon, the car indeed has the necessary capabilities to enter Q3 and the top 10, but for that, it will be necessary to push the car to its limits.
According to Esteban Ocon, the car has the necessary capabilities to enter Q3 and the top 10.
There is still one last free practice session for the Alpine drivers to get to grips with their cars!
