Alpine Renault A523 speculation thread

[AR3-GP]

I feel the A523 will be a beast and will beat Mercedes for P3

Expect nothing that way you cannot be disappointed.

[diffuser]

I feel the A523 will be a beast and will beat Mercedes for P3

Expect nothing that way you cannot be disappointed.

Unfortunately, Alonso is gone and them there are big shoes to fill!

[continuum16]

Yes and according to Permane, they were within a couple of kilos of the minimum weight, around Silverstone... but it must be costly and inefficient, as Harman said, to try to chase down the remaining 2000 grams (the harder ones) in the second half of the season... and for what? 0.064s?
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alpi ... /10344371/
Better wait for the off-season and take the opportunity to incorporate these weight saving changes with the other changes of the new car and try to gain much more than 2 kilos, in order to reap the other associated benefits of an 'underweight' car and gain more than 0.06 : )

https://i.imgur.com/O15BuCe.jpg

Plus the 2023 car weight minium is 796KGs, down a further 2 KGs from 2022.

Is it good to have a minimum weight all the teams seem to (easily) achieve, or would it be better to have them looking for the last 10kg over a period of years? There are things that have to be separate, such as safety and driver equalisation, but the tec race that could go in that last 10kg could be as frantic as wing study and could help material and design development.

Not A523-specific, but in general, I think it should be way lower. Like 750kg or less. Maybe even 700. Something unattainably low. Nowadays everybody basically makes a car to the maximum dimensions and then says “oh it’s too heavy” and complains. Alfa made their car shorter last year to avoid this.

It certainly would increase the diversity of the cars; there’d be a lot more avenues for development and concept optimization. Have a minimum PU weight and from there, go wild. It shouldn’t be a materials arms race, anyways. That’s what the cost cap’s for, right?

[Blackout]

This could be the brand new Virtual Test Track... It's a never-seen-before full car test bench anyway.
But is this an A523 or A522 bodywork

[Blackout]

Could be an A522B bodywork, without the mirrors and some side panels (red arrows)

[AR3-GP]

This could be the brand new Virtual Test Track... It's a never-seen-before full car test bench anyway.
But is this an A523 or A522 bodywork...

This is incredible.

[organic]

[continuum16]

I agree with scarabs’ idea that this is the 2023 car. That sidepod is not anything seen on the 2022 version (the RB-style ridge is a giveaway). Also very nice to see a full minute of engine running rather than 5s of idle and a few throttle blips.

Idk what FOM uses to capture the sound, but the onboard mics they normally use sound terrible compared to this. This is much more accurate to the real noise (which, IMO, sounds a lot like an indycar, which is nothing against one or the other, it’s a nice noise). Either way kudos to Alpine for actually showing us something.

[Blackout]

I thought it's due of the reflection of those two tubes/cables...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnfpuMNXkAs ... name=large

[AR3-GP]

I agree with scarabs’ idea that this is the 2023 car. That sidepod is not anything seen on the 2022 version (the RB-style ridge is a giveaway). Also very nice to see a full minute of engine running rather than 5s of idle and a few throttle blips.

Idk what FOM uses to capture the sound, but the onboard mics they normally use sound terrible compared to this. This is much more accurate to the real noise (which, IMO, sounds a lot like an indycar, which is nothing against one or the other, it’s a nice noise). Either way kudos to Alpine for actually showing us something.

They don't have to deal with wind noise on the dyno. The room probably channels the sound a bit differently as well.

[organic]

I agree with scarabs’ idea that this is the 2023 car. That sidepod is not anything seen on the 2022 version (the RB-style ridge is a giveaway). Also very nice to see a full minute of engine running rather than 5s of idle and a few throttle blips.

Idk what FOM uses to capture the sound, but the onboard mics they normally use sound terrible compared to this. This is much more accurate to the real noise (which, IMO, sounds a lot like an indycar, which is nothing against one or the other, it’s a nice noise). Either way kudos to Alpine for actually showing us something.

I now think it's the 2022 bodywork

Think that the reflection of the black/white cable in the bodywork makes it look like there's a curve / a crease where there isn't one

[AR3-GP]

That looks like 2022 launch spec to me.

[organic]

https://racingnews365.com/exclusive-alp ... car-design

Harman gave the reasons for the Enstone team choosing to pursue their current design philosophy:

"We're extending the thread of the aerodynamic concept I would say, the car is an evolutionary car. It has to be, for lots of different reasons, mainly around the cost cap, but we're pushing that cap to the absolute limit

"We're changing a vast proportion of the car, but we're not moving too far away from our aerodynamic concept, because we believe that actually it's one that still shows a great deal of potential.

"What we've really done is focus on the mechanical aspects of the car to unlock that next amount of potential."

Harman believed the team could still make big performance steps through floor upgrades:

"I think we are still finding a great deal of performance from the floor. We can see lots of opportunities in there still, we can see some opportunities in the way in which we lay out our car.

"There are still an awful lot of performance gains [to be had] in the rear of the car, but also managing that inlet to the floor. We still don't believe we've quite got that right yet, and I think we really will maximize that.

"When you see [next year's car] the A523 and you see some of the changes that we've made to the front of the car, you'll start to see that we've actually realised some quite big potential in that frontal floor area."

[Blackout]

Do you think that the parts I colored purple and green on the 'new' car are the real outer bodywork? or is the purple part just the internal rollhoop cooling duct (purple arrow), while the green part is the internal shield that surrounds some mechanical parts (green arrow)?

If it's the outer bodywork, then Alpine made those 'cannon' exits much tighter around the engine etc... which is easy to do on the paper, since that area is empty... but those bulbous cannons were obviously there for some reasons, like to vent some of the hot air...

[RedNEO]

Famin your engine guy was alluding they changed something like this here

“For example, we can imagine changing the inlet line or exhaust line to allow our colleagues from Enstone to make better aerodynamics.

“This is where we are working. We’re working of focus in the use of the energy management, but here again we are going to be very limited as we’re going to have only one software version per year now. We are pushing like that, but it’s more on the on the drivability.