How Alpine’s intriguing Las Vegas tweaks helped its F1 charge

With Pierre Gasly grabbing fourth place on the grid, and Esteban Ocon charging from 16th to finish fourth in the race itself, the A523 appeared well-suited to the high-speed demands of the Las Vegas track. 

And it was interesting to see how the team refined several aspects of its car for the weekend, which appeared to help it relative to the opposition. 

The squad has been pretty proactive in terms of refreshing the design of its front wing this season in order to offer the right front-to-rear balance in conjunction with the choices made at the rear of the car.  

In the case of Las Vegas, this came in the form of what first appeared to be just another upper flap trim, something that the team has done regularly already this season.  

However, there was more to it than that, as the team ran a modified version of the front wing it used at the beginning of the season.  

The variant introduced at the British Grand Prix, which has been subtly modified since, features a different flap distribution arrangement, which is more prominent at the outboard end. The mainplane also stretches much further rearward. 

It is a design evolution that follows a trend that’s emerged up and down the grid in order to help manage the front tyre wake. This is something that Alpine remarked would provide better low-speed management than the design it ultimately chose last weekend.  

This one had a narrower moveable upper flap, resulting in a wider static section near the nose, both of which were trimmed more than we have seen before. 

At the rear of the car, the team ran the low downforce rear wing last seen at the Italian Grand Prix. 

However, rather than being paired with the bi-plane beam wing arrangement used at Monza, the team opted for just the lower element, which was also trimmed to better suit its demands. In another effort to boost its straightline speed the team also removed the upper winglets from its rear brake duct. 

Ferrari plays with downforce levels 

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Ferrari SF-23 rear wing comparison, Las Vegas GP

Ferrari made a crucial change to its aerodynamic set-up between second and third free practice, enabling it to produce a performance that should have locked out the front row were it not for Carlos Sainz’s power unit component penalty. 

The Scuderia had started out using the same rear wing configuration as the Belgian Grand Prix during…