What’s gone wrong with Alpine’s new Formula 1 car?

When teams embark on such a change of direction, it is inevitable that they endure a learning phase in understanding how to extract pace out of their new platform.

In Alpine’s case, however, the revamp for this year has not yet delivered any of the progress hoped for – and has so far only led to its A524 being painfully off the pace in the opening two races.

The fears leading team figures expressed at the new car launch of it being a tough start to the campaign have proved spot on – although admittedly things have been even worse than feared, as the French manufacturer currently seems pegged near the back of the field.

As team principal Bruno Famin said ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix: “It’s been a tough start to the season. And, actually, it’s been more challenging than we expected.

“We must keep progressing and keep bettering our understanding as to why we are lacking performance and, ultimately, how we can improve the package. Clearly, we have issues to fix quickly.”

The problems Alpine needs to address

The difficulty for Alpine is that it is facing issues on multiple fronts, with the team needing to address many factors if it is to have any hope of moving forwards.

Shortly before news of his resignation emerged at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the team’s former technical director Matt Harman spoke openly about the sources of Alpine’s problems – and there are three clear areas that stand out.

First of all, it knows that it is fighting with one arm tied behind its back because its power unit is lacking compared to the opposition. Depending on whose figures are more reliable, estimates put the deficit somewhere between 15-30bhp. In the super-tight midfield, the time lost there makes a difference.

On top of the power headache, Alpine has also begun the campaign with a car that is overweight. This has been well discussed in public, although the team has not revealed any figures about just how much excess bulk it is carrying.

One source suggested that temporary measures needed to bulk things up to pass a specific crash test over the winter had meant up to 15kg extra being added over what was originally intended – which pushed it from below to quite a bit above the minimum weight limit.

It is not clear how accurate that figure is (as it seems quite excessive) but, asked if some crash-test failures had…