Photo: Alpine F1 Team / Twitter
After struggling last year from a power unit performance standpoint, Alpine have looked strong in 2022 as team engineers focused on major upgrades, including switching to a split turbine and compressor design for the first time.
According to team principal Otmar Szafnauer, his colleagues at Renault’s Viry-Chatillon powertrain division did a “brilliant job” in closing the gap to their rivals on the grid, reports Motorsport.
“We think we’ve made a step on the power unit,” said Szafnauer. “And we’re within probably 10 bhp of the best, and somewhere in the middle. I think Viry have done a brilliant job. And it’s up to us now to keep developing the car.”
Since there’s a development freeze in place until the end of 2025 (with some power unit elements already frozen), the fact that Alpine have already found their form this year is very significant, although reliability is still an issue as Fernando Alonso’s engine from Bahrain had to be sent back to Viry.
Alonso also lost the engine he used in Saudi Arabia after a water pump failure led to overheating, causing his retirement from the race.
“It was just a precautionary change for us to test some things on the dyno, and it tested ok,” said Szafnauer while discussing the Bahrain unit.
“So that engine will be used again. The other one unfortunately, where the water pump, although the water pump isn’t part of the ICE, you can change it, but it overheated the ICE, so that one is gone. But we’ll be ok."
During qualifying for last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, Alonso crashed his car after an oil pressure drop triggered a fail-safe mode that shut down his engine mid-corner – thankfully for the French outfit, that engine was ultimately saved and was used in the race.
Despite all of these reliability issues, Alpine are currently fifth in the Constructors Standings, trailing fourth-place McLaren by just 2 points.
“We think we’ve made a step on the power unit,” said Szafnauer. “And we’re within probably 10 bhp of the best, and somewhere in the middle. I think Viry have done a brilliant job. And it’s up to us now to keep developing the car.”
Since there’s a development freeze in place until the end of 2025 (with some power unit elements already frozen), the fact that Alpine have already found their form this year is very significant, although reliability is still an issue as Fernando Alonso’s engine from Bahrain had to be sent back to Viry.
Alonso also lost the engine he used in Saudi Arabia after a water pump failure led to overheating, causing his retirement from the race.
“It was just a precautionary change for us to test some things on the dyno, and it tested ok,” said Szafnauer while discussing the Bahrain unit.
“So that engine will be used again. The other one unfortunately, where the water pump, although the water pump isn’t part of the ICE, you can change it, but it overheated the ICE, so that one is gone. But we’ll be ok."
During qualifying for last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, Alonso crashed his car after an oil pressure drop triggered a fail-safe mode that shut down his engine mid-corner – thankfully for the French outfit, that engine was ultimately saved and was used in the race.
Despite all of these reliability issues, Alpine are currently fifth in the Constructors Standings, trailing fourth-place McLaren by just 2 points.
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