Alpine have unveiled their car for the 2024 season, the A524, in a launch event at their factory at Enstone.
While other teams have previously revealed their liveries for the upcoming season, Alpine has become the first to sow its actual car. The team described the A524 as a significant departure from its predecessor, having been disappointed by its slump to sixth place in last year’s championship.Race drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly – the latter also celebrating his 28th birthday – were present for the launch, along with reserve driver Jack Doohan. Luca de Meo, CEO of Alpine owners Renault, also attended the first launch since the team’s management shake-up last year.
The changes to Alpine’s livery indicate the lengths the team has gone to reduce the car’s weight. Much more of the carbon fibre skin has been left unpainted than last year. The team will once again use a special pink livery at a handful of races this year, in honour of title sponsors BWT, but this too is a much less colourful design.
The A524 was presented at a joint launch for the team’s new World Endurance Championship Hypercar, the A424, with which it will contest this year’s championship. Ferrari is the only other F1 team to participate in both categories, and Alpine’s WEC driver line-up includes Mercedes reserve driver Mick Schumacher.
Bruno Famin, who took over as team principal last year following the departure of Otmar Szafnauer, said: “To see both the real cars here today is testament to all the hard work conducted behind the scenes at our factories from our thousands of talented employees in the United Kingdom and in France.
“The next stage on our journey is deploying everything to the track, applying operational excellence across the board and growing a greater dynamic and mindset from all our teams. We are all very much looking forward to continuing the hard work to bring the Alpine name success.”
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Pictures: 2024 Alpine A524
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Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
7th February 2024, 14:01
God almighty, that’s just awful…
BasCB (@bascb)
7th February 2024, 15:39
Yeah, it looks like what we do when the customer insists they want to see a trolley / packaging before we got to paint it. Just slapped a few blotches of paint (stickers?) on to give it at least some colour.
Asd
7th February 2024, 16:51
OMG. It’s the ugly PLATYPUS NOSE from the FIA’s 1st 2022-spec presentation car! I’m gonna throw up :(
Tristan
7th February 2024, 17:06
Am I even looking at the right photos? How is that a platypus?
Asd
7th February 2024, 17:59
Oh, Tristan, that’s very troubling. Let me show you then.
The 2022 Ferrari…:
https://media.formula1.com/image/upload/content/dam/fom-website/manual/Misc/2022manual/WinterFebruary/f175front.jpg.transform/9col/image.jpg
…was an eagle:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fqfvemw9gs9471.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D4aaf7699823d507204f5a370721aa9b056dcd632
The 2024 Alpine…:
https://www.racefans.net/2024/02/07/first-pictures-alpine-reveals-its-new-f1-car-for-2024/2024-02-07_145503/
…is a PLATYPUS:
https://assets.puzzlefactory.com/puzzle/253/706/original.webp
Tristan
7th February 2024, 18:07
You’re judging by the shape of the sticker, not the bodywork.
Asd
7th February 2024, 20:34
@Tristan
Come on man, what’s wrong with you? The nose cone is very wide (aka broad and big) – it retains the width of the entire nose portion of the car. Can’t you see it?
Tristan
8th February 2024, 0:07
Sure it’s wide but it still comes to a point in a V. I’m not seeing a platypus at all is all.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
8th February 2024, 8:54
This Eagle briefly swooped in from a different realm, took a quick look at all 2024 cars, snickered at taglines like “gives you wings” and terms like “stakeholders“.
“Stakeholders, schnakeholders, snakeholders… I eat entire snakes for breakfast“, he muttered to himself.
The Weslake V12 growled impatiently. The Eagle was hungry. It was time to leave these strange modern pits. The Eagle avoided the “Crash App Team” car, which was already parked at Turn One after another lithium battery explosion oopsie, which of course made it miss the time warp portal chicane.
The Eagle flew through the 1967 portal with ease. Time had been reset, the Nürburgring was once again the way it should be.
The Eagle was at home.
With the accelerator to the floor, the Eagle soared majestically into the air over the Flugplatz, aiming for that perfect flypast through Kottenborn and Schwedenkreuz, and knowing that Touristenfahrten prey would be plentiful at Aremberg.
The ghostly roar of the Weslake V12 slowly disappeared into the distance. It could still be heard for a long time until finally fading into the mists of time.
https://revsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Eagle-front-overall_-900×600.jpg
Rosie the platypus
7th February 2024, 17:58
I’m not having that.
Jan (@yancheelaa)
7th February 2024, 14:08
FUGLY
Yellow Baron
7th February 2024, 16:28
Hahahahahahah would you look at that! It’s black. With a couple sticker on it, never would have guessed. How many mercedes on the grid now? Clowns the lot of them, they need to mandate proper liveries or temporarily increase the weight limit
Adam (@rocketpanda)
7th February 2024, 14:09
It’s nice. Going to be totally anonymous in a field of black and orange McLaren’s, black and green Sauber’s, black and white Haas’s… big day for fans of black.
Tristan
7th February 2024, 17:09
Maybe that’s why I like it… There’s something about black with a touch of pink… Maybe it’s the 90s teenage emo vibe.
Jungle
8th February 2024, 7:15
Wonder if Ferrari is going to forgo a lot of the red
Retired (@jeff1s)
7th February 2024, 14:09
May I present you the penultimate Alpine F1 car
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
7th February 2024, 14:22
It will be perfect for all radio broadcasts.
Chappy
7th February 2024, 14:23
We ran out of budget for the paint
RandomMallard
7th February 2024, 14:23
The WEC Hypercar looks lovely! The F1 car? Well, let’s focus on how good the WEC car looks shall we…
PacificPR (@streydt)
7th February 2024, 15:08
The WEC car looks great! You mention the F1 car? I haven’t seen it? Must have disappeared into a black hole like all the other liveries..
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
7th February 2024, 15:33
Yes. The Hypercar was definitely a looker.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
7th February 2024, 14:31
Imagine being BWT and paying for a “Special Pink Livery” and getting a black car with a single pink stripe.
Dex
7th February 2024, 14:39
Is there a new rule against normal, decent, stylish liveries? And how hard is it to incorporate a new weight limit rule that takes the paint into consideration? How much brain power does that take?
Dex
7th February 2024, 14:40
And sorry, this wasn’t meant to be a reply.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
7th February 2024, 14:44
It’s free weight. Unless you force the teams to fully cover the car, it’s impossible to do anything else IMO. Teams will always chose performance over looks, unless for some reason their sponsors force them via their contracts with the team to plaster the car with something.
I wonder what kind of discussion Ferrari has whenever they design the livery these days. They can’t make a black Ferrari, that’d be sacriledge. But then, it’d be lighter…
Dex
7th February 2024, 16:37
I meant something like what they did about the driver’s weight; so luckily they aren’t trying to become driving skeletons anymore. Perhaps the paint could be measured (the car before and after it was painted), and ballast applied when needed. Maybe this would be too complicated, I don’t know; and of course maybe there is a better way. But I think that all teams would welcome the opportunity to use the paint without worrying about performance. That’s good for their branding, for the sponsors, for us viewers too…
Tristan
7th February 2024, 17:34
Adding more mandated weight is not something anyone should be arguing for.
The answer as with a lot of things in F1 at the moment is to make the cars lighter!
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
7th February 2024, 14:46
Looks like a backmarker…
skylab (@skylab)
7th February 2024, 14:46
2024, F1 goes goth.
slowmo (@slowmo)
7th February 2024, 14:49
Hard to say too much from the poor quality pictures so far but it looks a evolution of last years car rather than an attempt to carbon copy Red Bull. There seems to be more severe undercut on the sidepod and it looks like the sidepod falls away more at the back. In general the car looks a bit “slimmer”. There might be more critical changes in the floor and diffuser but even if the pics were better they’d hide such details for as long as they can. Doesn’t scream fast to me. The lack of paint again indicates they’re likely not at the minimum weight limit yet either like most we’ve seen so far.
DavidDesu
7th February 2024, 14:58
All the liveries so far are either so dull and bland and uninspiring or garish as all hell. Alpine had a great looking car not that long ago, a lovely metallic blue… what’s this monstrosity of blandness??
I swear to god if Ferrari go backwards and add in white silly stripes or something I’m going to lose it. Ferrari livery is the best it’s ever been recently with the satin sheen bold red with black accents.
stefano (@alfa145)
7th February 2024, 15:25
How uninspiring do we want our next car livery to be?
Yes.
Yellow Baron
7th February 2024, 16:23
You know… Half the grid is like this black car with a few coloured stickers. What a yolk
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
7th February 2024, 15:36
So much for Gallic flair!
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
7th February 2024, 15:37
The design looks OK but the colour is unexciting. There is just too much black/bare carbon fibre about this year. Surely a little bit of paint cannot make that much difference.
We are destined for an increasingly bland sport with bland cars taking part in bland races. I wish this sport would get it’s act together.
I luv chicken
7th February 2024, 15:41
A bag of donuts, and a coffee, to the person who invents coloured carbon fibre.
Tristan
7th February 2024, 17:18
It exists, but it’s unnecessary expense and I don’t think beautification falls outside the budget cap.
Yellow Baron
7th February 2024, 16:24
You didn’t realise last year?
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
7th February 2024, 15:38
Compared to last year’s car, it is definitely a different car. Plenty of changes on the chasis side, especially on the floor edge. Livery is not very inspiring….so much exposed carbon fibre. Let’s hope the performance is there.
I luv chicken
7th February 2024, 15:39
Before i click on the page with the livery pics, let me close my eyes, and guess the colour. Mmmmmmm—black. Was I right?
MichaelN
7th February 2024, 15:41
Are they even still painting these, or is just wraps?
Whatever it is, if Red Bull didn’t need it last year, going with such bare liveries points to some desperate measures and doesn’t inspire much confidence in the design.
Luke S (@joeypropane)
7th February 2024, 16:08
It’s times like this I miss the yellow of Renaultsport…
GeeMac (@geemac)
7th February 2024, 16:18
Clearly struggling to get to the weight limit still…
Bobby Balboa (@bobby-balboa)
7th February 2024, 16:55
This makes the Sauber look a million dollars
Tristan
7th February 2024, 17:20
Eh? Hard disagree with that take, gaudy plain green entirely un-designed.
Ludewig
8th February 2024, 8:39
@Tristan
Stake at least succeeds in making green the dominant color. Alpine utterly fails at it, making it just a black car with a bit of pink randomly strewn across it.
So if I would call anything undesigned, it’s the Alpine, rather than the Sauber. And keep in mind that it’s not just about the static images, but also how it will look when moving.
Tristan
7th February 2024, 17:00
Wow, I love it.
The lines at the back all match the alpine A, the castrol there has been outlined with a width that fits the outline of the BWT, I can’t read what the logo is at the light blue above the Alpine but the way the French flag is just a thin line below it is sublime.
Not a huge fan of the front view but wow this is such a huge step up from McLaren for me.
It could do with a touch less negative space or some colour trim to help its colours be a bit more visible from non-orthogonal angles but besides that, best livery so far.
osnola
7th February 2024, 19:02
Are we really looking at the same car or do you have other photos?
Tristan
7th February 2024, 19:51
I just have a different brain, it’s fine.
Robert
8th February 2024, 0:33
I also like the livery on this one, as you point out there are several smart and nice touches. There just isn’t enough livery on the car, sadly.
An Sionnach
7th February 2024, 18:45
Like the Sauber one, it looks better on video than in the photos. They don’t have a lot to work with if the car has to be mainly black and the sponsors haven’t changed. Only the Sauber and “Minardi” cars were ever likely to be significantly different from last year. Not sure what a Visa Cash App will look like. Visa is blue, white and yellow; Cash App is a similar green to Kick. Doesn’t sound like a treat for the eyes.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th February 2024, 19:37
I like the more predominant black presence.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
7th February 2024, 19:57
Yes but a lot of cars have a lot of black on them. It’s going to become difficult to distinguish them. Especially if you are actually at the race.
I think back to the days not so long ago when most teams had a bright, unique colour scheme which it was easy to identify.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
7th February 2024, 19:56
Oh great! Another black car! I remember F1 Fanatic running an article in 2017 about how vibrant and colourful the new grid was going to be. I guess that sentiment has well and truly died now…
Ben (@scuderia29)
7th February 2024, 21:14
As much as I hate on screen graphics, it might be the only way to distinguish all the cars on track this season.
Chris Horton
7th February 2024, 21:50
This lack of paint thing is getting out of hand.
What a sack of…
ady (@sixwheeler)
7th February 2024, 22:04
Thank you Alpine. I am quite reassured now. I don’t think the 2024 bare-carbon-plus-hint-of-colour aesthetic can get worse than this. I don’t think there is anything else to scrape off the bottom of that barrel, so well done!
Stephen H
7th February 2024, 22:41
Sean Bull must be weeping into his cornflakes…
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
8th February 2024, 6:38
a real launch, awesome.
tielemst
8th February 2024, 8:20
Is it even visible on tarmac?
Mark Thomson (@melthom)
8th February 2024, 18:31
Really gloomy cars this year – no charisma at all
Christoher W
10th February 2024, 5:44
It would never happen, but I’d LOVE to see Alpine do a ’91 Benetton tribute livery. The paint on those things must’ve weighed 40 pounds. I thought they were SO ugly when they were racing, yet now I drool over them. Haha!