What’s New on the Alpine A524? Clever Details, Exterior Changes and More

So far in February 2024, we have had 5 livery launches, including the Visa Cash App RB F1 team’s surprisingly positive livery launch. However, out of all the cars, the one that has intrigued everyone the most is the Alpine A524. Alpine has attracted a massive round of investment in the past year and even revamped the team internally in the wake of some challenges.

The blockers were perhaps due to the team’s inconsistency on the tracks. To solve this problem of inconsistency, many believe the team’s 2024 challenger is the solution. The A524 largely looks like its predecessor but there are some aspects to it which make it a promising car.

Nooks and Crannies of the Alpine Challenger

The first and foremost is the part that all teams emphasize on modern-day F1 cars, the sidepod. The sidepods of the A524 are similar to a certain world championship-winning car from last year. However, everyone has copied or tried to copy the Red Bull sidepod but there is more to the A524 than just the sidepods.

Apart from the ‘P’ shaped inlet in the sidepod, the Alpine challenger also has a revised floor. The floor edge flap again mimics the RB19. However, the rear pod shape is less aggressive whilst that is not the case with the front wing and the wishbone with a wider and flatter nose cone and the front wing centrally loaded. The Alpine A524 also has a larger and squarer engine inlet above the driver’s head.

It’s clear the team has made significant changes within the regulations to allow for better performance, especially seeing how they feel down the pecking order and finished 6th in the overall standings in 2023.

This is exactly why the fandom is excited to see the Alpine A524 perform on the track in Bahrain. Along with this, their technical director’s honest admission of the changes in the car also played a pivotal role.

Alpine’s technical directory reveals the changes they’ve introduced in the A524

Usually, by the third year under the same regulations, the teams find their feet and update the already existing livery for the following year. If the car is working, why change it fully and waste limited allocated money, right? However, 2023 proved there are only a handful of teams on the grid on the right track and everyone else needed a serious revamp.

Read More: F1 News: Alpine Confirms Bruno Famin as Team Principal

That was the case with Alpine as well because the French team was a shadow of their 2022 self and they needed a major overhaul. So apart from the internal changes, the team has changed their car as well.

Technical Director Matt Harman revealed, “We started that process [of understanding what we needed to do differently] actually originally from concept work back in week 45 of 2022.”

“But more so after the first few races of 2023. We decided to take a very bold approach as Bruno said. It’s a brand-new car from front to back. I think only the steering wheel survived. So, we’ve really tried to look at every single area of the car to make sure that we leave no stone unturned and we give ourselves a car that we can have potential with throughout the year,” he added.

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Perhaps not everything, but the team surely has a lot of new components on the 2024 challenger. Let’s just hope they work as planned and give us some exciting on-track action over the coming year.