Grosjean: The presentation chassis was built in the fall

Roman Grosjean has been racing abroad since 2021, in the American IndyCar series, but now his program also includes endurance races. He continues to closely follow events in Formula 1 and in the latest episode of his YouTube video blog he shared his impressions of the presentations of the 2024 cars that have already taken place. Let’s quote a few excerpts.

Roman Grosjean: “What is the version of the car prepared for presentation? This is a chassis that was probably created around October-November last year, when the team was just starting to produce components for the new car in order to have everything ready in time for pre-season testing.

These versions only show the most basic features of the cars that will appear at the start of the first race of the new season, and the difference will be quite significant.

From autumn and throughout the winter period, intensive work is carried out in the wind tunnel and CFD technologies are used. The teams try to complete this as late as possible, as close to the first race as possible.

If the production cycle of a part lasts one month, the team can complete the design exactly one month before the first race and only then start production. Of course, some details can be seen on the machines shown at the presentations, but we will still see significantly modified versions in Bahrain. Therefore, for the time being we can only discuss the livery of the cars, some conceptual solutions and individual design details.”

It seems that the Alpine A524 made the strongest impression on Roman, especially since the team emphasized that this was a real chassis, and not the presentation version: “I liked this car a lot, although you can say that I hoped it would be so would be blue and pink in color.” There will be more of her. But teams are increasingly leaving parts unpainted, simply making them from carbon – this is done to reduce weight.

The characteristic contours of the side pontoons indicate that Alpine, like all other teams, tries to direct as much air as possible to the diffuser, to the rear of the car. But in front of the pontoons there are newly formed deflectors, and I appreciated these elements. They are quite large in size, you can see that they have been very carefully designed and their function is to direct as much air as possible to the side pontoons.

There are large tunnels within the pontoons through which the air flows to the diffuser, and the deflectors direct it exactly where it is needed.

In the area in front of the rear wheels, the edges of the underbody have been given rounded shapes, which is quite interesting. It is unclear whether this shape will remain or be changed, but it is notable because it is a sensitive and important area and it appears that Alpine has put a lot of effort into it.

The same can be said about the front of the side pontoons. It looks very compact and neat, and from the looks of it, the Alpine’s cooling system should work very efficiently. Although the version of the body parts shown at the presentation is designed mainly for cold weather, as there are almost no places where heat is dissipated. It’s clear that the aerodynamicists were really trying to direct the airflow exactly as they needed.

So we’ll see what the Alpine car can do on the track, but so far I like it a lot.”