Alpine Formula 1 Team Principal Bruno Famin assesses his team’s situation after the first two days of testing in Bahrain: Is the A524 overweight?
As was the case last year, the Alpine Formula 1 team is not making any sense of the tests in Bahrain. Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are more likely to be found in midfield in the timesheets, but as the French team has made the hardest tire choice of all the teams anyway – the soft C4 and C5 tires have not even been booked – they are not expected to set the timesheets on fire anyway.
After the first two days of testing, Alpine Vice President and Team Principal Bruno Famin expects his team to be fairly midfield. “We are quite happy with what we see,” said the Frenchman. “What you can’t see in the simulation is how fast the others are, and we won’t know that for another two or three races.”
“Is everyone hiding everything? We just have to assume that everyone is hiding more or less in the same way, with the same fuel, the same sandbagging and that’s it,” says Famin, who replies to the question of where he sees his Alpine team in the field: “In the middle.”
“The midfield is pretty tight because there are no more small teams. It’s the third year under the new regulations and the field will become more and more compact, at least for eight or nine teams. “
Is the Alpine A524 too heavy?
Like some other teams, Alpine is facing the challenge of starting the new Formula 1 season with a new concept, which is why the focus of the test drives is initially on gaining an understanding of the A524. It is also assumed that the Alpine is over the weight limit, which would also explain the extremely black paintwork.
“Weight is always a factor,” says Famin. “If you’re overweight, you have to go underweight and if you’re underweight, you have to put the ballast in the right place. And even if you’re underweight, you still need to put on weight to improve weight distribution. And weight reduction is always a challenge. “
“There’s certainly a lot to learn, because the car is new from front to back, the chassis is different, the suspension is different, the aerodynamics are different. And we wanted to try to improve the weak point of the previous car. Let’s wait for next week to see if we’re on the right track. “
Famin: What he expects from Alpine in 2024
“So far we have been able to fulfill our plan, we are discovering the car and testing new set-ups to understand the car, and I think we are making good progress in understanding the car. For us, it’s not about performance, it’s about collecting data, understanding the car and developing our plan, and we are very happy with that.”
After a disappointing 2023 season, when the team only finished sixth in the constructors’ championship despite two podiums in Monaco and Zandvoort, Alpine is striving for improvement in 2024 without setting precisely defined targets. “What I really need to see is momentum,” says Famin, looking to the future.
“Our goal this year will be to develop a dynamic to improve the car and also to improve the team, the team as a whole and not just the track, much more than a target in terms of a final result or a position in the championship or podiums. “
