The arrival of the development freeze until 2025 has encouraged the teams to give it their all with this season’s engines. Alpine commissioned Renault for a total renovation to end the mediocrity of past seasons.
The Renault engine it has never really been competitive in the hybrid era and that has had consequences in the past. A faithful and successful partner like Red Bull ended up betting on Honda and McLaren turned to Mercedes as soon as he had the opportunity. In addition, the official team has been weighed down by the mediocre performance of the French power unit.
That is why, months ago, Laurent Rossi, CEO of Alpine Cars, commissioned the Viry-Chatillon factory to completely new engine for 2022prioritizing performance over reliability.
“It’s completely different from anything Viry has produced before. It is more complex, much more beautiful and ordered»
This, which could be understood as a great risk as a result of the entry into force of the growth freeze of these engines until 2025, it is actually a logical move.
And it is that the homologation of the engine is carried out in two phases: the first, which expired on March 1, affects the combustion engine (ICE), the turbocharger, the MGU-H, the exhaust system, fuel and engine oil, while the MGU-K, the batteries and control electronics will be frozen on September 1.
From that moment, any modification can only be made with the authorization of the FIA and after demonstrating that it supposes only a reliability improvement or a cost reduction. That is, the performance cannot be improved, but the reliability can.
The conclusions of the Barcelona test
With these premises in mind, Alan Permaine has made a first assessment of the performance offered by the new engine in the three-day test in Barcelona. In it, both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon rode the first two days without problems, but missed almost all of the third due to a hydraulic failure that caused a fire in the car.
“We have not been using the engine at full power. I don’t think we’ve done a lap in what they call ‘single ICE mode’, which is qualifying mode and race mode. We have approached it, but we have not arrived, ”said the Alpine sports director when asked about the new engine.
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Permane points out that the performance of the engine has not been a real issue of concern during the first half of the preseason, which in his opinion is a sign that things are going well with a completely new engine like the one mounted on the Alpine A522.
“Honestly, we haven’t talked about the power unit, and that’s a great thing,” says Alan Permane. “It’s very different. It is completely unlike anything Viry has produced before. It is more complex, it certainly looks much nicer and neater. But we’ve just put it on the car and started shooting with it, which is great.”.
Nothing to highlight… neither good nor bad
When asked about the impressions that the engine has left on the drivers, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, the British engineer pointed out that they “have made the normal comments about handling, power delivery or turbo lag, but The boys got on it they played around with the settings, the maps and stuff, and it all worked out.”.
“The engine hasn’t even been a topic of conversation really, which is great,” Permane reiterated. “I think it’s very difficult for them to talk about power compared to last year because of the fuel differences and the big power differences. But certainly They don’t complain about that at all. We are very happy about it».
In 2021, Alpine raced an engine with three years of very limited development, so surely progress should be palpable, as much as the introduction of the gasoline E10 (with 10% sustainable ethanol) leads to a reduction in power.
Is this an indication that the new engine returns to go just for performance or does Alan Permane simply prefer to be cautious and discreet in his assessments?
Source: autosport
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Photos: Motor.es