Alpine A521

[diffuser]

I strongly think only 3 teams are full aware and convinced of the aero main concept. Mercedes with low rake based philosophy and redbull mclaren with flexible high rake concept. All other teams just go in between or try to copy. Renault, Aston and ferrari are doing good work in aero details but it appear they never decided fully which concept to adopt, since 5 years. If yoi keep like this, you will always be back. Hybrid selutions are good, but not for winning titles. You have to master the general car aero and dynamic design with full awareness of where you want to go.

Could you quickly give a primer on the relationship between engine structure and the one of the exhaust manifold? And why does the A521 can’t then have them smaller?

I think it's what blackout said. It isn't a can't it's they haven't invested the time and money.

I mean if they would have brought the 2022 PU with a front compressor in this year and they could have done whatever.

Exhausts are tuned to specific lengths but they don't have to be on the side of the ICE.

RBR tuck them in under the ICE.

I think this is really a conversation for the teams forum? If we keep this up we'll hear from Thunder soon.

[Morteza]

Look at the modified gearbox casing on the Alpine A521 compared to the Renault RS20 (below), in order to raise the suspension wishbones.

[diffuser]

Look at the modified gearbox casing on the Alpine A521 compared to the Renault RS20 (below), in order to raise the suspension wishbones.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EyyCWFlXEAI ... ame=medium

I appreciate the shots of the rear suspension but I Can't believe that he didn't get a side view of the PU while in the car.

[Tooooom]

Scarbs isn't convinced with Alpine's cooling solution:

[PowerandtheGlory]

Scarbs isn't convinced with Alpine's cooling solution:

It will be interesting to see the 'updates' they have this weekend. I think the team promised more 'performance' as well, suggesting a better cooling setup to yield more power perhaps? maybe then can run the engine a bit higher in mode. I think there was an issue where's Nando's car has to be 'turned down' after the first stop last race.. not sure if they did the same to Ocon as a matter of course, but hopefully they can cool all the PU elements properly under race conditions. My weather app says there is chance of rain on the Sunday.... that would be amazing to see! Air Temps as probably 12-13, track temp will be higher... Peroni 'Gran reserva' is already in the fridge ready...

[Pany]

Are we sure all radiators up there are water-based? could be some radiator (electronics, battery, intercoller maybe, other small radiators) are experimenting with air/air circuits; they are less efficient and require more volume, but are very light for COG implications. This woul easily explain the extremely large sections and volumes in that zone

Scarbs isn't convinced with Alpine's cooling solution:

It will be interesting to see the 'updates' they have this weekend. I think the team promised more 'performance' as well, suggesting a better cooling setup to yield more power perhaps? maybe then can run the engine a bit higher in mode. I think there was an issue where's Nando's car has to be 'turned down' after the first stop last race.. not sure if they did the same to Ocon as a matter of course, but hopefully they can cool all the PU elements properly under race conditions. My weather app says there is chance of rain on the Sunday.... that would be amazing to see! Air Temps as probably 12-13, track temp will be higher... Peroni 'Gran reserva' is already in the fridge ready...

[Blackout]

Are we sure all radiators up there are water-based? could be some radiator (electronics, battery, intercoller maybe, other small radiators) are experimenting with air/air circuits; they are less efficient and require more volume, but are very light for COG implications. This woul easily explain the extremely large sections and volumes in that zone

An hypothesis that is partly based on Scarbs interpretation:
- The old CCS in pink (ERS + engine water probably) has been modified and moved back. It becomes the red CCS 
- The good old compressor duct (green) has been split in two ducts (green) to let pass the new red CCS duct between them. This is what widened the rollhoop
- By elimination, the yellow radiator is probably the gearbox/hydraulic/turbo oil rad, so it has been moved forward and reoriented. The red CCS occupies the old yellow rad space 
 
Pics from @nicolasF1i 

[Blackout]

And some people like Platinum here or @nicolasF1i even think the pink rad is still there, but is smaller and hidden behind the green ducts...
 
So if these interpretations are true, some questions remain: why did they ditch their good old CCS that served them well in 2018 and 2019 and 2020 and barley changed, in the first place, to place it rearwards like most other CCS users? 

And why couldn't they just do like MCL (who had the same PU in 2019 and 2020), or RBR, AT and Alfa and feed the CCS wit the the upper intake, and feed the engine with the lower one?

[Blackout]

I dont buy the theory that says "they moved some sidepod coolers to the center of the car" for now... the usual sidepod coolers are still there (engine oil rad in the left-hand sidepod + air-air intercooler and water rad + air-air intercooler on the right-hand sidepod)... unless they split each of those sidepod rads in a big rad and a smaller rad and moved the latter to the center of the car...

Here is the usual engine oil rad (orange)
The orange pipe comes from the scavenge pimp and the blue pipe goes to the oil tank


In the right-hand sidepod, it seems the water rad worked in tandem with the old CCS rad
Pics from @nicolasF1i 

[Blackout]

However Scarbs seems to think the right-hand green duct feeds the horizontal rad, while its twin feeds the compressor, but both those ducts seem to have an air filter... so I think both green ducts are split inside, like in 2018to2020, and part of the air goes to the compressor and the rest goes to the radiator


Before

[diffuser]

Wonder why they just don't feed the interline cooler from all/part of the top hole and therefore do away with the whole width thing.

[Pany]

The new foreward yellow radiator seems too little for Gearbox and turbo oil; you guess right the pink radiator is moved back a new red radiator, in order to lower mass a little and get some space on engine to accomodate larger plenum and improove engine efficiency, maybe, as others are doing. And/or maybe some smal additional intercooler or other air radiator is hidden in the top between the 2 green air ducts. At the same time I can not eplain why the 2 air ducts in green with filters are so big also, I guess they experimenting some sort of extra air inlet for some new energy storage method, based on excess of compressed air; who knows.
Surely there is something strange or secret in there at top, to justify this extra volume amplification.
In my opinion they are sacrificing this season to implement and study new solutions, to improove car performance in the future. At the moment results are not good, but I like the idea they are trying new things, instead copying others; could be a good sign.

Are we sure all radiators up there are water-based? could be some radiator (electronics, battery, intercoller maybe, other small radiators) are experimenting with air/air circuits; they are less efficient and require more volume, but are very light for COG implications. This woul easily explain the extremely large sections and volumes in that zone

An hypothesis that is partly based on Scarbs interpretation:
- The old CCS in pink (ERS + engine water probably) has been modified and moved back. It becomes the red CCS 
- The good old compressor duct (green) has been split in two ducts (green) to let pass the new red CCS duct between them. This is what widened the rollhoop
- By elimination, the yellow radiator is probably the gearbox/hydraulic/turbo oil rad, so it has been moved forward and reoriented. The red CCS occupies the old yellow rad space 
 
Pics from @nicolasF1i 

[PowerandtheGlory]

The new foreward yellow radiator seems too little for Gearbox and turbo oil; you guess right the pink radiator is moved back a new red radiator, in order to lower mass a little and get some space on engine to accomodate larger plenum and improove engine efficiency, maybe, as others are doing. And/or maybe some smal additional intercooler or other air radiator is hidden in the top between the 2 green air ducts. At the same time I can not eplain why the 2 air ducts in green with filters are so big also, I guess they experimenting some sort of extra air inlet for some new energy storage method, based on excess of compressed air; who knows.
Surely there is something strange or secret in there at top, to justify this extra volume amplification.
In my opinion they are sacrificing this season to implement and study new solutions, to improove car performance in the future. At the moment results are not good, but I like the idea they are trying new things, instead copying others; could be a good sign.

Are we sure all radiators up there are water-based? could be some radiator (electronics, battery, intercoller maybe, other small radiators) are experimenting with air/air circuits; they are less efficient and require more volume, but are very light for COG implications. This woul easily explain the extremely large sections and volumes in that zone

An hypothesis that is partly based on Scarbs interpretation:
- The old CCS in pink (ERS + engine water probably) has been modified and moved back. It becomes the red CCS 
- The good old compressor duct (green) has been split in two ducts (green) to let pass the new red CCS duct between them. This is what widened the rollhoop
- By elimination, the yellow radiator is probably the gearbox/hydraulic/turbo oil rad, so it has been moved forward and reoriented. The red CCS occupies the old yellow rad space 
 
Pics from @nicolasF1i 

I think that because they don't have a customer to supply this year, then they have had more free rein to try new things (ok, granted cooling is sometimes still unique to teams even with the same engine) but i think they were able to try a few new things without worrying about a customer. Like it or not, being the only Renault engine car means its their USP, so they might as well exploit that uniqueness..

[Tooooom]

Are we sure all radiators up there are water-based? could be some radiator (electronics, battery, intercoller maybe, other small radiators) are experimenting with air/air circuits; they are less efficient and require more volume, but are very light for COG implications. This woul easily explain the extremely large sections and volumes in that zone

An hypothesis that is partly based on Scarbs interpretation:
- The old CCS in pink (ERS + engine water probably) has been modified and moved back. It becomes the red CCS 
- The good old compressor duct (green) has been split in two ducts (green) to let pass the new red CCS duct between them. This is what widened the rollhoop
- By elimination, the yellow radiator is probably the gearbox/hydraulic/turbo oil rad, so it has been moved forward and reoriented. The red CCS occupies the old yellow rad space 
 
Pics from @nicolasF1i 

On those pictures the main rad seems to be more in the back and slightly lower, no?
So wouldn't it actually lower the center of gravity compared to the previous placement? Also speaking of that center of gravity, would it partially explain the tyre degradation at the back and the slight oversteer we see Alonso and Ocon battling constantly with?

[PowerandtheGlory]

Are we sure all radiators up there are water-based? could be some radiator (electronics, battery, intercoller maybe, other small radiators) are experimenting with air/air circuits; they are less efficient and require more volume, but are very light for COG implications. This woul easily explain the extremely large sections and volumes in that zone

An hypothesis that is partly based on Scarbs interpretation:
- The old CCS in pink (ERS + engine water probably) has been modified and moved back. It becomes the red CCS 
- The good old compressor duct (green) has been split in two ducts (green) to let pass the new red CCS duct between them. This is what widened the rollhoop
- By elimination, the yellow radiator is probably the gearbox/hydraulic/turbo oil rad, so it has been moved forward and reoriented. The red CCS occupies the old yellow rad space 
 
Pics from @nicolasF1i 

On those pictures the main rad seems to be more in the back and slightly lower, no?
So wouldn't it actually lower the center of gravity compared to the previous placement? Also speaking of that center of gravity, would it partially explain the tyre degradation at the back and the slight oversteer we see Alonso and Ocon battling constantly with?

I dont think either driver reported this in testing. But at the first race they struggled in the heat- one or 2 teams took a step forward