Alpine “expecting a challenging start to the year” – Famin

17 comments on “Alpine “expecting a challenging start to the year” – Famin”

1. 

   MichaelN
   24th February 2024, 0:35

   It’s designed like a Formula 1 race car, capable of generating the necessary amount of downforce to enable fast track driving, especially round corners and bends.

   I appreciate Bloomberg is writing to the ‘oh look how expensive’ crowd and not the motorsport enthusiasts, but this is something else. Anyway – come on Aston Martin, bring that thing to Le Mans like you said you would! It’ll be fun, and there’s BoP now so no more AMR-One shenanigans.

   “a challenging start to the year”

   That doesn’t sound good. But it can’t be much of a surprise after the big reshuffle mid-season last year that things probably didn’t go entirely smoothly in preparation for this season. Alpine is in such a weird spot as a team. It doesn’t seem like there’s much of a strategy there to make it a winning team, nobody wants their engines, and they’re just… there. It’s actually a bit surprising they haven’t sold it yet.
   1. 

      Nick T.
      24th February 2024, 4:57

      “Fast track driving.” What a ridiculous sentence even for that type of article as you said.
   2. 

      SteveP
      24th February 2024, 8:12

      It’s actually a bit surprising they haven’t sold it yet.

      So, a few little twists and Andretti join the grid with a Renault PU ?
   3. 

      anon
      24th February 2024, 13:01

      MichaelN, whilst Aston Martin have said they are looking at developing a version of the car for sportscar racing, it will depend on the team getting a redesigned version of the chassis homologated to meet the crash test requirements imposed by the WEC for the Hypercar class.

      It also shows why the belief that cars like the Valkyrie would be what the Hypercar class would be based on were rather wide of the mark. Basically, the ACO did weigh up the idea, but concluded quite early on that cars like the Valkyrie couldn’t meet the required crash protection standards without significant redesign work, and so it was abandoned as a concept quite early on.
      1. 

         MichaelN
         24th February 2024, 15:54

         Indeed, it’s quite an interesting tale how the original Valkyrie became the AMR Pro, and that in turn is now – apparently – being reshaped into a LMH again, with proper testing due later this year.

         It’s a bit odd though that this car is apparently also well over a tonne in weight, even though it has no hybrid features, which is apparently also something they want to bring to the LMH. That’s going to put them on the backfoot given the obvious benefits of the hybrid system, but I suppose we’ll see how the FIA/ACO handle that hybrid/non-hybrid divide now that more and more cars are entering the class.
2. 

   Tristan (@skipgamer)
   24th February 2024, 0:51

   6 times in the last 8 years, circuits have been faulty and unsafe. 4 of those leading to significant damage or a complete accident. That’s a shocking statistic. What a great article.

   “We couldn’t have seen it coming” really is wearing thin. FOM and FIA talking about transparent investigations into the alleged safety of an unknown someone at one team. How about one into this? These are all potentially catastrophic “near-misses” that would be filed on any incident report form.

   Talk about setting examples and sending a message. Blows my mind with how little regard they’re treating these incidents to save face.
   1. 

      Coventry Climax
      24th February 2024, 1:32

      It’s outrageous. I’m outraged, p’d off by such display of amateurism.
      Most people however seem to show a much different sentiment and don’t seem to care all that much – only that it’s good show. Which adds to my fury, actually.
   2. 

      Nick T.
      24th February 2024, 5:06

      Define unsafe. F1 has become ludicrously safe to the point of insane overkill. The odds of a fan being killed in auto accident on the way to a race are astronomically higher than the odds of an F1 driver being seriously injured let alone killed. I agree that the Vegas drain cover was an unacceptable lapse though.
      1. 

         Tristan (@skipgamer)
         24th February 2024, 5:11

         Did you read the article? I don’t need to define it. If you think it’s safe to have a part of the circuit flying around as a car goes over, that’s your take.
         1. 

            S
            24th February 2024, 7:51

            F1’s definition of safe is many, many times stronger than it was a couple of decades ago.
            This wasn’t a part of the track anyway – it was well off the track.

            What’s really changed is how the competitors approach driving on the tracks, as Verstappen noted yesterday.
            These cars are far more brutal on the track and surrounding areas, in large part because the drivers are placing them where cars never went before and were never supposed to go, in addition to the combination of their excessive mass and aero performance.
            They aren’t just putting 800kg of load on the surface, they are putting many times greater force through anything they drive over at speed – especially when turning.
            It’s amazing enough that the tyres are withstanding these forces – but when they cars are working such enormous loads into the surface that it breaks the reinforced concrete that bolts are anchored into, there are bound to issues such as these.
            This is obviously the main reason why the actual track surface has none of this furniture attached to it.

            Demanding tracks upgrade to even more excessively engineered fixing solutions is somewhat counterproductive (and expensive) when it would be much better for everyone if they simply made the cars less abusive to the track and further ‘encouraged’ the drivers to actually stay on it at all times.
            Excessive downforce and vertical loads are the culprit – not the tracks.
      2. 

         Coventry Climax
         24th February 2024, 9:45

         Nick T.:
         The definition of ‘safe’ lies with the FiA, who mandate a circuit to fullfill their requirements, with one of the aspects being safety.

         Sure as you can be the FiA’s wording of their rules or requirements is vague, you can equally be sure that calling it ‘unsafe’ when parts of a circuit potentially fly round and hit cars, drivers or bystanders, is ‘within the spirit of the rules’.
3. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   24th February 2024, 6:24

   Unsurprisingly since they never improve enough to join the top mix.
4. 

   An Sionnach
   24th February 2024, 7:37

   I played GP2 a lot, too, usually as Schumacher. It was released in 1996, when Schumacher was driving for Ferrari. It seemed a crazy move to me at the time and he would miss out on four world championships. Ross Brawn was sure the 1996 Benetton was a championship winning car in Schumacher’s hands, so instead of being a three-time champion he went to a team that seemed hopeless. This is the inspiring thing about Schumacher. He did something Prost and most top drivers would not do – go to a team that seemed useless just based on potential. Prost and Fangio held the records for most wins and most championships at this time. Ferrari was a disaster for Prost, and they did not develop the car significantly since the 1989 one. Still, he would have won in 1990 were it not for an action that was confirmed as cheating. Fangio switched teams mid season to try and always be in the best team. He was the best, but he knew that even the best needed, and could get, a competitive car. Perhaps the greatest effect of the Ferrari experience has been reducing the number of championships both Prost and Schumacher would have won? It lead to three (championship) winless years for Prost, one of which he didn’t have a drive for due to his firing by Ferrari.

   I played GP2 in ’96, ’97, ’98, and probably beyond. I played as Schumacher while watching him valiantly battle against the reality of what seemed like an unstoppable car in something that was often more than a little deficient. 1997 was particularly remarkable. He came so close, even though he was disqualified for a similar action to Senna (although Senna’s was clearly pre-meditated and he remains the hero and Schumacher the villain due to the former’s immense cult of personality).

   Maybe Lewis meant to say something else, but I can see how GP2 could inspire him. I’m not sure anyone can repeat what Schumacher did at Ferrari. He attracted the right people to the team and said the right things to keep people on side. Prost nearly did it, might have achieved a position to better influence the team, but was perhaps too frank to be destined for anything but an eventual ejection, despite the fact that 1990 was an almost-miracle. The Ferrari team was too much in denial shut the car to see what Prost had done. Schumacher’s first comments on the 1995 Ferrari when he tested it were that he thought it was good enough to win the championship. Was this what he honestly thought or just him demonstrating he had what it takes, not as a driver, but as a leader and influencer of men, to succeed in the crazy world of Ferrari? I think Lewis has the potential to succeed in this regard. He will need to reign in frustration and be his more PR-savvy self, while not taking a wait-and-see approach internally if there’s something wrong, as he has done at Mercedes. I greatly admire Prost as a complete driver, but Lewis needs to look more to Schumacher – the man who dedicated his first championship to Senna, even though it was far from a certainty that Senna would have won it (I don’t believe he would have). This is just speculation on my part, but I think there are other examples of Schumacher being far more PR-savvy than someone like Prost. This, plus his immense talent and the unstoppable juggernaut Ferrari became did eventually win many over, in spite of the continued efforts of occasional wandering lunatics who dedicate their lives to the thesis that Schumacher wasn’t actually any good at all. Such folk stalk the land when it comes to Lewis, too. I am not a fan of his, but he is not a Damon Hill or Jacques Villeneuve. His abilities are evident and I am excited to see what he can do. He doesn’t have to win the championship. If he can put it up to the much younger Leclerc he’ll have demonstrated not just his talent, but his staying power against a talented young driver – twice.
   1. 

      An Sionnach
      24th February 2024, 7:42

      The Ferrari team was too much in denial *about* the car to see what Prost had done.
   2. 

      MichaelN
      24th February 2024, 9:14

      He will need to reign in frustration and be his more PR-savvy self, while not taking a wait-and-see approach internally if there’s something wrong, as he has done at Mercedes.

      He will definitely have to, but it’s something he’s struggled with his entire career. Once he gets frustrated he tends to sulk about. Something to the effect of what he grumbled after the Monaco race in 2021 (?) when asked if there was something to be learned, which went like “For me, no, but the team yes” isn’t going to make him many friends.

      You’re absolutely right to point out the enormous pull Schumacher had on people to want to come work with and for him. Todt’s role in convincing the right people also shouldn’t be discounted; I’m sure Ross Brawn was keen to work with Schumacher in particular, especially after his frustrations about Alesi and Berger ‘wasting’ the potential of the 1996 Benetton. For Rory Byrne though, he seemed pretty convinced on his retirement plan. But whatever convinced him, it was a very inspired idea to bring him back. Pretty much everything he had a major hand in was a good car.
      1. 

         An Sionnach
         24th February 2024, 11:09

         Yes. I’m far from an expert in Lewis. I don’t think he is, or is even that close to being, the greatest. He does have formidable, consistent pace, both in-race and over one lap, and he is maybe the best (bar one) of the current field. I think he is also a better all-round driver than his hero, Senna (or he has it where it counts in race pace and pacing himself). He’ll have to be at his very best if he wants to succeed at Ferrari. I’ll say that even Schumacher would not have succeeded in Ferrari had that critical mass of essential people joined him. Since it was Todt who got Schumacher on board, he probably does deserve much more of the praise. I don’t think he minded it going to Schumacher, though. That’s a sign of a good leader – to be happy to get the results, even if it’s not you who gets the worship.
5. 

   Bart de Wit
   25th February 2024, 16:25

   Good, I’ll be happy to see alpine languish at the back. The way they went about and dropped Ottmar, along with the CEO issuing comments to the media without to much a word to the team, slagging off the whole team, makes this Karma. Shame it’s a shame for Gasly, time for him to look elsewhere. But about right for the incredibly over rated Ocon.

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