At the end of the 2022 season, the year with the longest calendar in the history of Formula 1 with 22 races, Fernando Alonso He finished the campaign with six retirements, but there were many more problems: the failure in qualifying in Australia, he did not start the car in the sprint in Austria…
Despite AlpineY especially Esteban Oconthey would like to point out that the two pilots suffered the same number of failures, the reality is devastating: the Asturian was much more burdened than the French.
Singing the ‘mea culpa’ and taking stock of the year, Bruno Faminmythical engineer of Formula 1 who accompanied Fernando Alonso in his crowns with Renault in 2005 and 2006, he has explained what caused the equipment’s repeated reliability problems.
The also former director of operations of the FIA has pointed out to elements external to the team: “We also had problems with parts from suppliers. But that does not matter. We have a responsibility to check everything and make sure the engine is stable.”
“We take many risks. We tried to make the engine as light as possible. We continue development for as long as possible until just before the season. As a result, we couldn’t change certain loops during the review“, has pointed out in statements to ‘Auto motor und sport’.
Alpine could not analyze all the innovations on the test bench, but since the end of the year they have had a Virtual Test Track to solve this handicap that caused continuous problems in the water and gasoline pumps.
Now, with Enstone and Viry, the two Renault Group factories, working more closely, Alpine is confident of taking a step forward.
“It’s not about aerodynamic performance on the one hand and engine performance on the other.. We only think about the overall performance of the car. All the decisions about the car are made so that we can get as many points as possible,” she said.
Regarding the prospects for 2023, Famin is realistic given the freezing of engines: “There is no real margin to squeeze more power. You cannot improve engine performance with rules. But we can influence the performance of the car by making changes to the engine. One way to do this is with compaction. For example, we can modify the intake line or the exhaust duct so that our colleagues at Enstone can weave better aerodynamics around it.”