Today, Alpine presented the Formula 1 and Endurance Championship programs for 2024. They provided the first glimpse of the new Alpine A524 – to compete in this year’s Formula One World Championship. This car has been defined as aggressive in its development philosophy aimed at correcting last year’s mistakes.
The team’s Team Principal will remain Bruno Famin. He was appointed as interim ahead of last year’s Belgian Grand Prix, with a promotion from his old role as executive director of the Power Unit division at Viry-Chatillon in 2022.
Matt Harman remains the technical director at Enstone, where the chassis and aerodynamics of the French cars are developed.
Meanwhile, Eric Meignan takes on the same role but at Viry-Chatillon. Starting this year, Julian Rouse will take on the role of Sporting Director of the team. He will report directly to the Team Principal.
The Alpine A524 will have a black and ‘Alpine blue’ livery, BWT-inspired livery for eight races
The liveries of the A524 and A424 (Alpine’s WEC car) are modern and striking. They are largely inspired by Alpine’s collaboration with contemporary artist Felipe Pantone.
Alpine’s new design is black, underlined by strokes of ‘Alpine’ blue, characteristic of the French team since 2021 when it changed its identity.
BWT enters its third year of partnership with the F1 Team. It stands out for its pink colour scheme.
These colours will be emphasised at eight of the twenty-four rounds of 2024. Alpine’s special ‘pink livery’ in collaboration with BWT is focused on reducing single-use plastic around the world.
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will be teammates for the second consecutive year. Both achieved a podium in 2023, Ocon in Monaco, after a great performance in Q3 on Saturday. Gasly claimed his in Zandvoort, taking advantage of a chaotic race in uncertain conditions for all 72 laps.
Gasly, in particular, can benefit from an extra year of experience with the team:
“I would say that right now, I’m in a much better situation than I was 12 months ago. I know exactly all the people I work with.”
Alpine’s reserve driver will be Australian Jack Doohan.
Alpine A524, Bruno Famin: “After a turbulent 2023, we want to be operationally better this year.”
The changes in the second part of last season “led to immediate and tangible success,” according to Famin. Alpine’s interim team principal expressed the desire to continue improving operational efficiency.
The goal is now to extend this dynamic across Alpine Racing and start 2024 with an edge in delivering high standards and maintaining operational excellence.
“In terms of performance, after a few years of important declarations and consequent disappointments, he did not go too far.
“We all know that progress is never linear. That’s why we won’t declare any numerical goals. We focus on ourselves and on improvements in different areas in order to demonstrate greater competitiveness.”
The Team Principal expressed confidence in his two drivers, defining them as some of the best around, and the expectations towards them are high not only on the track:
“Esteban and Pierre play a fundamental role both on and off the track, and we don’t see the time to work hard together with them.”
In 2023, the A523 failed to catch up with Red Bull, finishing the season with a very similar gap to the first races.
This year, the development will have to be better, and Gasly and Ocon play a role in that aspect:
“This is an important season in which we count on both drivers to continue where they left off. Giving results on the track and pushing the team off from it with valuable contributions to the simulator to aid the future development of the car.”
In the final races of last season, the team closest to Alpine in terms of performance was Alpha Tauri, about a tenth behind the A523.
Williams, on the other hand, ended 2024 with a roughly four-tenth deficit. This gap is not impossible to close over the winter, especially considering Williams was the first to abandon their ’23 project.
Looking ahead, Aston Martin showed a quantifiable advantage of around three tenths according to data analysis.
Meanwhile, the group of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren also finished 7/8 tenths ahead of Ocon and Gasly.
The Alpine A524 will still suffer from a fair delay in engine terms compared to the competition, which it will also carry with it into 2025, and competitiveness will still depend on the quality of the project in aero-chassis terms.
Alpine’s Shakedown on February 20th in Bahrain will precede the official debut of the season on February 21st again at the Sakhir circuit for pre-season tests.
Author: Andrea Vergani
Translation: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
