Mark Hughes, technical expert on the championship’s official website, has analyzed the salient features of the new Alpine car, which is being presented today at the team base in Enstone.
Although at first glance the A524 is reminiscent of last year’s Alpine car, the team has in fact completely overhauled the design and hopes to make significant improvements for the new season.
Noteworthy are the changes in the geometry of the rear suspension, which is based on the use of push rods, as well as a different configuration of the side pontoons in combination with a different layout of the cooling system, which made it possible to extend the chamfer over the entire length of the lower part of the pontoons deeper.
It is worth mentioning the significant efforts made by the team’s engineers to further reduce the weight of the chassis and the desire to achieve better control of braking temperatures to optimize tire performance.
Although Renault’s engines are still believed to be slightly inferior in power to competing plants, the team expects to increase their efficiency by optimizing the engine’s duty cycle.
The area where the radiators are located is shifted higher – this is indicated by the slightly larger size of the upper air intake and engine housing. Matt Harman, technical director of the team, spoke during the A524 presentation about a new approach to organizing heat dissipation – this suggests that the radiators themselves have become more efficient.
The bevel at the front of the side pontoons has become deeper and their central part has become less massive, which should improve the quality of air flow around the car and direct it to the critical area located between the rear wheels and the diffuser.
This current is used to influence the pressure behind the diffuser and thus increase the speed of the current flowing under the floor of the car. This therefore creates more downward force.
The rear suspension pushrods have been moved forward and mounted at higher points on the car. This increases the efficiency of their interaction with the balancers, i.e. with those suspension elements mounted on the bodywork. In theory, the suspension travel also increases. Ultimately, all these measures are designed together to improve chassis stability in all phases of cornering.
All this also helps solve the problem of finding the optimal amount of ground clearance at the rear of the car. The greater the suspension travel, the fewer compromises there can be in choosing the ground clearance, which decreases when the car is driven at high speed, when the suspension is compressed to the maximum, and increases slightly when the speed decreases.
Source: F1 News

I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.