Breaking news
Formula 1
Alpine F1 car hindered by wind tunnel problem
Alpine has revealed that a wind tunnel problem hampered its progress over the winter and put it on the back foot with its current Formula 1 challenger.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Apr 27, 2021, 12:23 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The French car manufacturer has slipped back against its main rivals this year, and it left the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix without scoring any points.
While the team is hopeful that an aggressive upgrade push can lift it up the grid, its executive director Marcin Budkowski says its difficulties can be traced back to troubles at the factory.
Reflecting on a challenging time at both the Bahrain test and race, Budkowski said: "Going into the test, we knew we experienced some headwind during the winter with some of the regulation changes, but also we had a few issues in the wind tunnel that slowed us in terms of development.
"We knew we didn't have the best possible winter. And therefore we were expecting to be on the back foot in terms of pace.
"Testing kind of confirmed that. We did make progress during the test with a few things we tested, they were an improvement, but we were on the back foot."
Budkowski added that while Alpine's pace in Bahrain was not a surprise, what did catch the team out was which teams emerged as its main challengers.
"Interestingly, we ended up pretty much where we thought we would end up," he said. "But we got a wrong one on some of the cars that were in front of us and some of the cars that ended up behind us.
"But I don't think that we were the only ones, because talking to a few team management members from other teams, it seems that quite a few people saw the order to be a little bit different to what we saw at the race. But that's just a matter of order in terms of competitiveness, if you want, compared to the front."
Alpine has brought an upgrade package to Imola in a bid to improve its fortunes, which includes a new front wing and nose design.
Read Also:
Budkowski said that update had been planned for a while, but other developments were now being ramped up in the wake of its competitive situation.
"We're pushing hard to try to improve our performance and that is clear from the number of upgrades we are bringing here," he said.
"We are further behind than we'd like to be, so it's going to take a bit more than a few upgrades. And then I don't expect everybody else is waiting for us to bring upgrades, so everybody is going to improve their cars.
"It's a relative race. It looks like the car is going to progress this weekend with the upgrades we're bringing, but we've got more work to do in the next few races to bring a bit more."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Spanish GP to take place behind closed doors
Next article Mercedes F1's step forward helped by Bahrain 'sting'
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jonathan Noble
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
Formula 1
Formula 1
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
More from
Alpine
Could Alpine-Geely deal to save WEC hypercar programme fall through?
WEC
WEC
Barcelona
Could Alpine-Geely deal to save WEC hypercar programme fall through?
Pierre Gasly questions FIA stewards' decision not to penalise Lando Norris after Singapore crash
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Pierre Gasly questions FIA stewards' decision not to penalise Lando Norris after Singapore crash
Latest news
Tom Cruise interested in racing ARCA car, per NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
20 min
Tom Cruise interested in racing ARCA car, per NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
3 h
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
3 h
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 3 h
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe