{"id":29302,"date":"2025-01-06T07:56:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T12:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=29302"},"modified":"2025-01-06T07:56:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T12:56:44","slug":"f1-news-alpine-target-championship-contention-by-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/01\/06\/f1-news-alpine-target-championship-contention-by-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 News: Alpine target Championship contention by 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A series of upgrades to end the season catapulted Alpine into 6th in the standings. Despite this, the French team have a significant gap to bridge if they want to fight at the front. Executive advisor <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/12\/f1-news-alpine-changing-completely-reveals-briatore\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Flavio Briatore<\/a> demands radical improvement in the near future.<\/p>\n<h2>No shortage of ambition at Alpine<\/h2>\n<p>Few teams that finish 6th in the standings could generate the headlines that Alpine did. In almost traditional fashion, the French team were subject of immense controversy last season.<\/p>\n<p>The first alarms went off in Bahrain testing, where concerns about the A524&#8217;s performance first emerged. The first races of the season confirmed these confirms, as Alpine&#8217;s extremely overweight car struggled for performance.<\/p>\n<p>Further controversies regarding <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/06\/alpine-double-down-on-ocon-swap-were-not-here-to-be-nice\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Esteban Ocon<\/a>, who didn&#8217;t even race at the Abu Dhabi, defined another controversial year at Enstone.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, all of this noise resulted in a familiar result for Alpine. They finished the year near the front of the midfield, a position they have occupied for the better part of a decade.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Xf-eyXXoQOlwjXQZwd4mOQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2186805145\" 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:'Xf-eyXXoQOlwjXQZwd4mOQ',sig:'3vWMaFwv0kB8AcIrN7f3iafkWoc_3N7HuTqhu0uP4X4=',w:'594px',h:'437px',items:'2186805145',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In an effort to break free form the midfield, Flavio Briatore has been appointed as Executive Director.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian enjoys the freedom to make whatever changes he sees as necessary to achieve success. Briatore&#8217;s influence is a big reason why Jack Doohan will be under immediate pressure when 2025 begins.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to the future, the 74-year-old has ambitious objectives for Alpine:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Alpine must always be in the top six next year. Maybe a podium every now and then,&#8221;<\/em> he told Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We have to improve our car to achieve this, that should be possible.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Aerodynamically, we have much more room for manoeuvre than Ferrari or McLaren.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;In 2026, we want to be on the podium in 50% of all races. Then you automatically win one race or another. In 2027, we must be able to compete for the title.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"c-qwxwTaR0xp23acBrNDJw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2188522520\" 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:'c-qwxwTaR0xp23acBrNDJw',sig:'MTfdCpDFjj72TtdxnmmpwGoEaAcy2KjEUd_uibV6Vws=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2188522520',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>A significant gap to bridge<\/h4>\n<p>For all the conversation surrounding Alpine, their efforts have failed to amount in a notable step forward.<\/p>\n<p>The midfield has been their natural position for the entirety of these regulations. In the meantime, others like <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/01\/01\/mclaren-reveal-brave-risk-with-2025-car\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">McLaren<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/01\/03\/f1-news-aston-martin-reveal-ambitious-2025-objectives\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Aston Martin<\/a> (albeit to a lesser extent) have managed to break into the front.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of infrastructure and personnel, the French team are by no means lightweights. However, there is still a difference in terms of personnel and resources at Enstone compared to the top teams.<\/p>\n<p>Flavio Briatore&#8217;s intention is to fast-track Alpine&#8217;s progress and hit ambitious targets quickly. With that said, expecting such a significant jump within three years could be a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>The decision to abandon Renault engines for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/01\/04\/toto-wolff-mercedes-wont-sacrifice-2025-for-2026-regulations\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Mercedes<\/a> power, though described as a performance-related decision, was essentially Alpine surrendering the chance of controlling their own destiny in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Teams rarely go from manufacturers to customers &#8211; since making your own engine puts you fully in control of development.<\/p>\n<p>Aston Martin and Sauber are among those committed to becoming engine manufacturers in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/12\/f1-news-alpine-to-become-mercedes-customer-team-from-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Alpine voluntarily give up this advantage<\/a>, if anything, shows a lack of conviction to invest the necessary funds to propel the Renault engine to the front.<\/p>\n<p>Still Briatore insists that huge progress is possible in a short time frame. Time will tell if any tangible changes behind the scenes can achieve this desired outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A series of upgrades to end the season catapulted Alpine into 6th in the standings. Despite this, the French team have a significant gap to bridge if they want to fight at the front. Executive advisor Flavio Briatore demands radical improvement in the near future. No shortage of ambition at Alpine Few teams that finish [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":23025,"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":[2243,2452,1844],"class_list":["post-29302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-a524","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-flavio-briatore"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29302","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=29302"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29353,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29302\/revisions\/29353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}