{"id":19000,"date":"2024-03-05T04:18:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T09:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=19000"},"modified":"2024-03-05T05:47:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T10:47:17","slug":"f1-news-alpine-aim-to-replicate-mclaren-resurgence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/05\/f1-news-alpine-aim-to-replicate-mclaren-resurgence\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 News: Alpine aim to replicate McLaren resurgence"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Alpine once again find themselves in F1 news for changes in senior positions, but team principal Bruno Famin remains optimistic.<\/h3>\n<p>Warning signs of Alpine&#8217;s weak foundations to start 2024 went off well before the A524 touched the tarmac. The French outfit was insistent in their pre-season launch that their latest challenger was still in its infancy.<\/p>\n<p>Bruno Famin and the team&#8217;s now ex-technical director Matt Harman repeated this sentiment.<\/p>\n<p>The objective at Enstone and Viry was to rely on mid-season upgrades to climb the field.<\/p>\n<p>On paper, this rhetoric during the winter break was just that &#8211; rhetoric. However, it soon became apparent the team&#8217;s pessimism was rooted in some very genuine concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Even before arriving in Bahrain for testing, Alpine F1 raised eyebrows with their tyre selection.<\/p>\n<p>They had selected more hard compound tyres than any other team. Not even a<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/02\/why-haas-now-have-the-attention-of-formula-1s-midfield\/\" target=\"_self\">\u00a0Haas team hyper-focused on race pace<\/a> went to the same extremities as Famin&#8217;s personnel.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"aW9vSQ-4RDJl6M4VIQSQWQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2030132917\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'aW9vSQ-4RDJl6M4VIQSQWQ',sig:'9hcXw4mgXwyft-wn76fjdSZhBzn-mpkaQWbA_UvBB9I=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2030132917',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Alpine&#8217;s worst fears confirmed<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>By the conclusion of the three-day tests, it was clear why this decision was taken. Alpine knew the A524 was a car still lacking in performance.<\/p>\n<p>Free Practice in Bahrain confirmed this, with the French machine also suffering from excess weight.<\/p>\n<p>Combined with its weak power unit and poor aerodynamics, this was a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n<p>Relatively quickly, the team&#8217;s F1 news coverage became very negative.<\/p>\n<p>Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly spent the first weekend of the year languishing at the back.<\/p>\n<p>At least for the short term, it is difficult to envision Alpine <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/05\/zhou-guanyu-boosts-contract-hopes-with-strong-bahrain-drive\/\" target=\"_self\">challenging in the midfield.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Alpine&#8217;s troubles are still ongoing, with the team confirming the resignation of technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer.<\/p>\n<p>These changes do not bode well for the A524&#8217;s potential for growth. It also indicates a lack of faith in their belief that progress is attainable in 2025.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"2VMRZPl5T6BQWEBQ6QHOyA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2020958221\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'2VMRZPl5T6BQWEBQ6QHOyA',sig:'WqCmMZDyvUG4E9aG_f1eNftsdueBDn0WDtSf2ZKldao=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2020958221',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Famin hopes to emulate McLaren<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>However, at least outwardly, team principal Bruno Famin tries to project a positive image:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;For sure, we have seen that, &#8220;<\/em> Famin told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/f1\/news\/mclaren-three-pillared-f1-technical-structure-inspired-alpine-changes\/10583252\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">motorsport.com<\/a> about the similar changes made at McLaren.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It gave us the answer to the question if it may work, and it looks like it&#8217;s working.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not saying it will make everything, of course.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But we have seen with McLaren that this kind of organisation can give a boost.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And this is what we&#8217;re looking for.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It seems quite clear that &#8211; at least broadly speaking &#8211; there is no real expectation that Alpine will replicate McLaren&#8217;s 2023 resurgence.<\/p>\n<p>The Enstone-based team have failed to show they are capable of any jump.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, the above comments are indicative of what the team aspires to &#8211; regardless of how attainable it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alpine once again find themselves in F1 news for changes in senior positions, but team principal Bruno Famin remains optimistic. Warning signs of Alpine&#8217;s weak foundations to start 2024 went off well before the A524 touched the tarmac. The French outfit was insistent in their pre-season launch that their latest challenger was still in its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":19001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,2243,2261,68,23,66],"class_list":["post-19000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-a524","tag-alpine-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-mclaren"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}