Formula 1

F1 News: Alpine To Hit Spanish GP With Porpoising-Busting Upgrades

Alpine chief Otmar Szafnauer has revealed a “constant flow of evolutions” that will be coming to the A522 for the Spanish Grand Prix.

We’re now arriving at the part of the 2022 season where a number of teams are talking about introducing upgrades to their cars. Red Bull has already spent a considerable amount of their budget on upgrades, and Ferrari has revealed that they’ll be rolling out improvements now in an attempt to catch up. Now, Alpine has joined this growing list as team principal Szafnauer has opened up about the changes coming to his cars as they begin the European run of the calendar.

Alpine has already shown solid performance so far this year with 26 points to the team over the first five races.

“There are parts for Spain, which is the sixth race,” Szafnauer told AS.

“There will be parts two races later (Baku), and at the tenth race (Silverstone). It will be a constant flow of evolutions.”

Szafnauer believes that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a track that suits their car, and will be heading into the weekend with optimism, adding that the team will be “strong in most places”.

“I expect the Alpine to be strong in Barcelona,” Szafnauer revealed.

“It’s a circuit that suits us and a lot of people say that if you are strong in Barcelona, you will be strong in most places.”

Like the majority of teams on the grid this year, one issue Alpine has had to battle with is porpoising, caused by the moving to ground effect downforce this season. Fortunately for Alpine, they have been learning through testing this season and are now ready to “keep evolving” in order to combat it.

“Because of the porpoising, sometimes we have to compromise the low speed corners to solve the high speed corners,” Szafnauer admitted.

“The more we drive, the better we understand it, and now we know how to keep evolving.”

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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