The A522 boasts a striking livery, with a stylish combination of the historic blue of Alpine and iconic pink colours of title partner BWT.
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BWT Alpine F1 Team revealed its contender for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship today in the city of lights, and Renault Group hometown, Paris. Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo and Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi presented the A522 on the eve of the biggest regulations shake-up in Formula 1’s 72-year history.
Luca de Meo and Laurent Rossi were joined on stage by new Formula 1 Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer. Race winner Esteban Ocon and two-time World Drivers’ Champion Fernando Alonso will guide Alpine for a second consecutive season. Oscar Piastri is the team’s Reserve Driver in 2022 after his dominant Formula 2 title triumph last year and subsequent ascension from the Alpine Academy.
BWT Alpine F1 Team highlighted the valued support from its title partner BWT and premium partners: bp Castrol, MAPFRE, Renault E-Tech and RCI Banque as well as its portfolio of Official Partners, Technical Partners and beneficial suppliers
BWT Alpine F1 Team officially welcomed its new A522 to the world today in Paris, ushering in a new era of Alpine excellence and sporting prowess ahead of the much anticipated 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The A522 keeps its striking Alpine blue livery, coupled this year with the iconic pink colours of BWT, the team’s recently announced title partner for 2022. BWT Alpine F1 Team also presented a ‘flipped’ livery with pink becoming the most prominent colour. This unique livery will be used for the first two races of the season, highlighting the new partnership with title partner BWT.
The presentation of BWT Alpine F1 Team’s second-ever Formula 1 car was led by Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi, CEO Renault Group, Luca de Meo, as well as newly appointed Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer. Drivers Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso were also on hand to reveal the much-anticipated A522 to the world. This new-look team will target further progression in 2022 after Alpine impressed in its debut campaign in Formula 1 last year.
The technical teams at Enstone will continue to be led by the recently promoted and experienced duo of Pat Fry, Chief Technical Officer, and Matt Harman, the new team’s Technical Director. Across the channel in Viry-Châtillon, the team has recently appointed Bruno Famin as Executive Director of Alpine Racing, tasked with maximising engine performance and integration into the chassis.
Staff in both factories have worked non-stop for the past 18 months to create the A522 against the backdrop of sweeping regulation changes introduced for the 2022 campaign. The collaboration between the two bases has been key in bringing the A522 to life. Alongside a completely new chassis and car build, the team is proud to showcase its all-new RE22 power unit, marking yet another chapter in the French car manufacturer’s illustrious heritage in Formula 1. The engine specification and packaging has allowed the team some extra freedom in shaping the rest of the car to better exploit the latest technical regulations and adjust for the new fuel specification, E10, as the next step to sustainable fuels in Formula 1.
BWT Alpine F1 Team continues with the same driver line-up a second season. Esteban – now a race winner in Formula 1 – enters his third year in a row powered by a Renault engine, while Fernando embarks on a historic and potentially record-breaking twentieth season in Formula 1.
Oscar Piastri is the team’s official Reserve Driver for 2022 after graduating from the Alpine Academy last year. The Australian driver is fresh from winning the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Drivers’ Championship.
Esteban and Fernando will take the reins of the A522 at the team’s filming day tomorrow at the Circuit de Catalunya, before embarking on pre-season testing later in the week.
Laurent Rossi, CEO, Alpine:
Laurent begins his second year at the helm of Alpine, remaining the figurehead of both the car brand and its Formula 1 operation.
Born in 1975, in Corsica, Laurent took a keen interest in engineering, motorsport and Formula 1 from a young age. An engineer by trade, Laurent holds a Master of Science in Fluid Mechanics from ENSEEIHT (Toulouse) and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering / Automotive Engines & Petroleum Products from IFP School (Paris). He began his career at Groupe Renault in 2000 as Project Leader in the Powertrain Division. Laurent then moved to the USA to obtain an MBA from Harvard Business School, which he achieved in 2009 and was then recruited to work for the Boston Consulting Group in New York as Project Leader, specialising in automobiles.
Laurent remained in America, joining Google in 2012 as Global Accounts Business Manager, leading business relations with key accounts in the automotive industry. By 2018, Laurent returned to Europe and to Paris, to again work for Groupe Renault in Strategy and Business Development, becoming Chief Strategy Officer in April 2018.
With the Alpine name joining the Formula 1 grid ahead of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, Laurent was appointed CEO of Alpine in January of that year, tasked with developing the car brand’s exclusive and innovative line-up, making it profitable by 2025, as well as leveraging its involvement in motorsport.
Away from leading Alpine, Laurent is an avid sports fan with a particular interest in Rugby Union and Football as well as being a competitive Squash player.
Q&A
Just what can we expect from 2022 for Alpine?
2022 is a very exciting year for Alpine. We came into the sport in 2021 with one mission: to set the foundations for this year, with its massive change of regulations and huge potential for mid-size teams such as ours. We learned a lot; what worked for us, what didn’t, what we needed to improve, and what we needed to consolidate. On the technical side, we have reinforced our already strong management team with Matt Harman stepping up to become Technical Director and Pat Fry becoming Chief Technical Officer. This will give us a simpler approach that will make us more agile as developments come thick and fast in the first part of the year. The rate of progress should be aided by an equally streamlined structure at Viry, with Bruno Famin coming on board. Bruno, from an engineering background with huge experience of making different parts come together and win, is a great asset to our team. I’m also delighted to welcome on board Otmar Szafnauer; together we have all the ingredients to continue the upward curve we started in 2021.
And what are your ambitions with this new-look BWT Alpine F1 Team?
We have multiple ambitions. Fifth is the minimum we need to target after last year’s performance. So far, we have hit our targets and we are happy with the progress we are showing, but we have to be realistic that this year all the cards are thrown in the air. We don’t know where we are going to be until we all hit the track. However, what we all need to bear in mind is that where we start isn’t important; it’s where we finish. We need to continue to show improvement, targeting operational excellence and progress throughout the year.
How has the F1 programme helped Alpine on the road car side?
Our F1 involvement is not just important for Alpine, but also for the wider Renault Group. Firstly, it helps to elevate our technical innovations with mobility solutions tested in the most extreme laboratory imaginable. The addition of Bruno, with his proven track record of moving development from track to road, is very important in this regard. F1 also gives the Group a nice patina of success – it’s not as simple as a win on Sunday, sell on Monday, but the exposure we receive via F1 is unquestionable. We’ve seen the Alpine brand exposure increase by over 300%, which is a very strong result, for potentially less financial impact than a worldwide marketing campaign. We now need to consolidate the strong start we have made. We have very aggressive KPIs, but we need to aim high if we are to get the most from our investment.
Pat Fry, Chief Technical Officer, BWT Alpine F1 Team:
Pat joined BWT Alpine F1 Team in February 2020 as Chassis Technical Director before moving the Chief Technical Officer in February 2022, overseeing all technical activities in Enstone. He is responsible for setting the performance target of the car, defining the technical capabilities and competencies needed and identifying future technologies and disruptors. He will ultimately arbitrate on major performance trade-offs and risks, and set the long-term development strategy to maximise performance within the constraints of the cost cap.
Born in Surrey, United Kingdom, Pat has extensive experience in Formula 1 having worked for McLaren, Ferrari, Manor and Benetton since entering into a career in the sport in 1987. He first began at Benetton in the team’s Research and Development Department in Witney working on active suspension systems. After working on the Test Team for a short period, Pat’s first racing trackside role was working as a Race Engineer to Martin Brundle in 1992.
In 1993, he moved to McLaren where he would remain for 17 years, contributing to 66 Grand Prix victories, one Constructors’ Championship and three Drivers’ Championships. Pat held a number of roles at the Woking-based team beginning on the Test Team before stints as Race Engineer to Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard. He later took on a role overseeing both teams’ race cars and he was then promoted to Chief Engineer of Race Development where he played a seminal role in the success of the McLaren race team.
A move to Ferrari followed in July 2010, bringing to a close his 17 years at McLaren. He started as Assistant Technical Director and later Head of Race Track Engineering. Pat continued in leadership positions at Maranello including Director of Chassis and Director of Engineering.
He left Ferrari in December 2014 but returned to Formula 1 in 2016 as Manor Racing’s Engineering Consultant. Pat then returned to McLaren in 2018 on a temporary contract as Engineering Director, aiding the team to its best Championship finish since 2012 with fourth place.
Q&A
How big are the rule changes ahead of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship?
Quite simply, it’s a massive overhaul of the technical regulations for this year, which Formula 1 have been working on for five years or more now. I’ve seen a number of big rule changes in my Formula 1 career and this one are certainly up there in terms of its complexity and how restrictive the regulations are. When I first started in Formula 1 the rule book was relatively short and now it’s very extensive! The main concept of the change is to make overtaking easier and allow cars to run closer together, though, the complexity of the rules does heavily restrict what we can do aerodynamically. It’s going to be interesting to see the 10 different versions of the cars as each team brings their own interpretation to the track. Of course, there is always an opportunity to get these things right, or wrong, so it will be intriguing to see what our rivals have come up with.
How has the team approached these rule changes in designing and developing the A522?
With any set of rules, it starts with a clean sheet of paper. Our job is to dig into the wording of what each rule means and then see how we can exploit that within what is legal. The more people you have, the more ideas you can generate and the more ground you can cover. Rule changes are always exciting from a design point of view, but you have to remain sensible and realistic. Performance in Formula 1 comes down to three things: the people, the tools they have to work with and the methodologies. We know this set of rules is quite restrictive. We’ve done the best we can and everyone in the team has done a great job. We’ll keep improving the aforementioned three core pillars and the aim is to keep moving forwards.
What have been the main challenges in preparation for this season?
In terms of the car, the key area for this year for every team is getting the most from the floor as it needs to work very close to the ground and, at the same time, you need to get the cleanest possible airflow to the rear of the car. There’s also been a huge amount of work at Viry to produce a completely new power unit for this year before its specification gets homologated through to the end of 2025.
In addition, close collaboration between Viry and Enstone on packaging the power unit has allowed us some extra freedom in shaping the rest of the car and better exploiting the latest technical regulations. Keeping the car to the weight limit is always a challenge, made especially difficult this year with the large increase in the chassis load tests for safety, which are, of course, for very good reason. There’s also the financial regulations and the cost cap to contend with and that presents a number of ideas and strategies for car development, which we’re looking to capitalise on.
How similar will the 2022 Formula 1 cars be to one another?
I strongly expect there to be many differences between the cars, especially at first when we see for the very first time how we’ve all interpreted the rule book. Some parts are fairly set such as the rear wing and the front wing. I’m sure there will be some interesting concepts that we’ll see from other teams, which we’ll assess back at base after the tests and, equally, that will work vice versa. The intrigue is all part of the excitement when you roll out of the garage for the first time at testing. Of course, we’re all looking forward to seeing the A522 on track and seeing all the hard work at Enstone and Viry over the last couple of years come to fruition.
Esteban Ocon, BWT Alpine F1 Team driver:
I’m very excited, of course, to not only see the A522 for the first time but to drive it for the first time this week. It’s always a privilege to drive a new Formula 1 car for the first time as you know all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes at both factories in Enstone and Viry from all of the many talented people working in the different departments there. That feeling and responsibility are truly unique and very special. I feel prepared, I feel ready physically, so let’s hit the track and see what we’ve got in our hands this year!
Fernando Alonso, BWT Alpine F1 Team driver:
It’s good to be back and I’ve been working hard to be ready for the new season. The build-up has been a long time coming after the rule change was delayed due to the pandemic. The car looks fantastic with the new regulations in place and I like the new livery. We have a new engine and we’re confident we had a good development in place for this new generation of car. We won’t know where everyone stands until Bahrain, but we’re excited to take the car for its first spin in testing this week. I hope the new regulations have worked and we get the more exciting wheel to wheel racing this year.