2022 Alpine F1 Team

[RedNEO]

I think after today Alonso is done playing the good team-mate game and Ocon will feel his wrath and mind-games from now on... Ocon, you eat what you cook...

Yes gloves are off

[JPower]

Is this thread titled "2022 Alpine F1 Team" or "2022 Alonso F1 Team"?

I didn't see anything malicious happening on track. Just a good battle.

Ocon is that you?

Ocon pulled to the inside down the main straight and appeared to squeeze a DRS-assisted Fernando Alonso against the pit wall, forcing the Spaniard to back out of the lap-five move

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/saud ... l/9375433/

[Mansell89]

Solid start from Alpine- looking forward to seeing their first big upgrade and whether they can make a significant step forward

[Kamel]

Too big focus on that battle. I think it's even better to have a competitive partner. And both squeeze the maximum of the car in qualifications. I'm more concerned about the engine and the second PU change for Alonso. If suddenly, the new aerodynamic parts will work very efficiently and A522 join the fight for the title (unlikely), I would like a stable engine.
Also, the team should be sometimes thinking about related strategies for 14 and 31, during the race they are usually close. For example, tire degradation was acceptable and one of the drivers could be started on hard

[Bisonas]

On the bright side of things, Alpine and their sponsors may had in one race more TV time/exposure, than what they had for the whole 2021 ..so to speak
Bad luck for Alonso. He was in did faster than Ocon and P6 (minimum) in the bag but i wouldn't expect Alpine start giving team orders in lap 4-5 of round 2 of the championship.
You have to keep a balance, you don't want to break Ocons psychology so early. You need to keep them both with high spirits for as long as possible. It was normal to let them fight.
Ocons persistence to try to pass Alonso, while it was obvious Alonso was a little bit faster, made Alpine intervene and told him to HOLD position behind Alonso (he was told after he let him through, to give back position from cutting the corner). Then Ocon was told to lift and coast at turn 13, 16 and later at turn 1 and then again 13 and 16, and after one lap he was told to lift and coast again (all that lifting and coasting was probably because of brake or/and tire temperatures). After all that he went after Alonso again, getting close, trying to pass when Alpine told him for the second time to HOLD position. Then again he was instructed that more lift and coast was needed due to (probably brake) temperatures again. From all that lifting and coasting he lost the DRS from Alonso, while Bottas took DRS and overtook him. After that we had the VSC and the SC which actually worked in his favor because he was really battling to bring down those brake temperatures. After his PIT he was again instructed to do what ever he can to bring down brake temperatures (both rear and front temperatures, as he was told clearly this time) which he did (get them back to normal) before the race restart.

Alonso after he got in front, he also had some issues with brake or/and tire temperatures (they call it “status” with his engineer) he also had to manage it a bit, in order to bring tire temps back to normal but nothing like what Ocon had to do. At some point Alonso told his engineer “I don’t know what to do with the “status” (of brakes and tires temperatures probably), we are crazy doing what we do” (he probably meant we are crazy Fighting like this between us) and it was about then, that Alpine told Ocon for the second time to HOLD position behind Alonso and try to deal with his own problems which where bigger than Alonsos problems at the time.

[max_speed]

Ocon has track record of being little over the edge . Overall fight was great but he went over a bit by pushing alonso into the wall. Alonso will play it easy for now but he is not going to forget it. Expecting a podium for him soon.

[diffuser]

I think after today Alonso is done playing the good team-mate game and Ocon will feel his wrath and mind-games from now on... Ocon, you eat what you cook...

Yes gloves are off

Bet BWT was beaming full pink with all that prime time!

[Bisonas]

Ocon has track record of being little over the edge . Overall fight was great but he went over a bit by pushing alonso into the wall. Alonso will play it easy for now but he is not going to forget it. Expecting a podium for him soon.

Ocon never pushed Alonso to the wall. Alonsos car was never alongside Ocons. Alonso was coming from behind with more speed and aiming for that inside gap, which was already small to begin with, waiting for Ocon to open up in order to take the corner.
Ocon saw what was going on, and didn't open up like Alonso was expecting and closed the inside gap even more with a slight move to the left.
That slight move ocon did to the left, was not risking putting Alonso to the wall, was risking making Alonso loose DF behind him,Lock-up, and hit him in the back, in a similar fashion of what happened in baku 2018 between the red bulls.
In baku though the moves made by both cars where more distinguishable, with RIC making a dummy move to the right, forcing VER to go right, and then move left to take the inside, making VER to also move left to cover the inside.

It was in did possible for Alonso to hit Ocon from behind, but even then it wouldn't be entirely Ocons fault. It would be a racing incident. Ocon was always aiming to cover the inside. He didn't open up, he just made the very small gap to the inside even smaller.

A repeat of Baku though it wouldn't be so easy to happened, because of the way the cars are generating DF now. With those ground effect cars, especially in high speed, you don't loose that much DF (compared to before) when you suddenly get into someones slipstream.

So Alonso could just brake and avoid any incident.
If that happened last year, it would have been even more risky and may had ended up in a different way.

[radosav]

Alonso's team radio during race, things to hear, like on 1:11 about racing Ocon, and tyre status, and about not able to catch Magnussen on much older tyres...

[Mansell89]

Anything more concrete about upgrade plans folks?

On a very untechnical note- can’t wait to see the car back to blue in Australia!!

[diffuser]

Anything more concrete about upgrade plans folks?

On a very untechnical note- can’t wait to see the car back to blue in Australia!!

Someone posted a couple pages back. Something for australia major upgrade for Miami.

[Mansell89]

Thanks Diffuser. Be interesting to see what Pat Fry does having said the car in the wind tunnel looks very different.

Do we think he will go Ferrari “babybel” shape or more akin to the Red Bull?

I kinda feel like of all the teams on the grid at the moment, Alpine could make ground quite quickly having almost sat on the fence and had a look around before overcommitting into a development dead end.

Might not have been the worst idea actually from Pat and his team- hope it comes off for them as another strong works team fighting the big boys is most welcome

[diffuser]

Thanks Diffuser. Be interesting to see what Pat Fry does having said the car in the wind tunnel looks very different.

Do we think he will go Ferrari “babybel” shape or more akin to the Red Bull?

I kinda feel like of all the teams on the grid at the moment, Alpine could make ground quite quickly having almost sat on the fence and had a look around before overcommitting into a development dead end.

Might not have been the worst idea actually from Pat and his team- hope it comes off for them as another strong works team fighting the big boys is most welcome

My guess is that they're going more the RBR way but I have no incite on that. I just think their solusion is already fairly close to what RBR has.

[101FlyingDutchman]

I really rate Pat Fry. I genuinely hope that car jumps forward with development. A tight pack is going to be awesome for F1. Same for McLaren.

[diffuser]

I really rate Pat Fry. I genuinely hope that car jumps forward with development. A tight pack is going to be awesome for F1. Same for McLaren.

Rate ?

Don't forget Fry is more of a manager these days. Guiding the youngsters. I haven't been able to find who the cheif engineer is...