The French company, Alpine, is bringing some upgrades to its Formula 1 car for the sprint race in Shanghai. These upgrades aim to make the car perform better after a tough start to the year. Esteban Ocon will use these upgrades exclusively this time, and both drivers will have them for the next race in Miami.
What’s interesting is that the new chassis the upgrades are going on is not only lighter than the previous one but also the team’s third chassis this year. This means they’ll have a spare chassis for the first time. Alpine’s technical director, Ciaron Pilbeam, said, “This is the first race the third chassis has been here.”
Apart from improving the car’s aerodynamics, Alpine has also been working on making the car lighter. At the beginning of the year, the car was over the minimum weight limit. Pilbeam thinks they’ll reach their weight target soon, especially with the new upgrades making the car lighter. He said, “We’re nearly there and we will be there within the next race or two.”
Asked if this means hitting the minimum weight limit or being below it to have flexibility with ballast, Pilbeam said, “We’ll soon be in a place that we’re happy with, to be able to give ourselves a bit of flexibility as well as just running on the limit.”
The changes on the floor of the car include some tweaks to the visible parts. The forward section of the edge wing remains mostly unchanged, but there are changes to the rear section. The edge wing and floor geometry are altered to make room for a cutout in the floor. This cutout raises the rear tire spat region and changes the angle of the forward area. A new dog-legged section on the rear of the edge wing connects to the underside of the floor. This change is somewhat of a return for Alpine, as they’ve used a similar design in the past.
