On the eve of the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the BWT Alpine F1 Team‘s Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry is feeling optimistic about the new Formula 1 season so far. Alpine managed to get a double points finish in Bahrain last weekend, as well as get some really good running (Esteban Ocon‘s incident where a sidepod flew off his car excluded!). In fact, the Bahrain Grand Prix was Team Enstone’s best performance in a season-opening race since the Lotus days in 2013; back then, Kimi Raikkonen took the race win at Australia’s Albert Park street circuit.
“It’s always good to come away from the first race with both cars scoring points and, just as importantly, learn more about how the car works in full racing conditions,” said Fry about Bahrain. “We ran reliably on both the chassis and power unit when it counted with the odd hiccup here and there, which is expected at the first race of the season.“
“We have a solid base to build from now and we’ll continue our learning this weekend,” Fry continued, regarding the team’s plans for Saudi Arabia. “We don’t have any distinct upgrades for Saudi Arabia but we will run some interesting test items in practice, which will give us some ideas for future concepts. As it’s a low downforce circuit, we will have a different rear wing for this weekend and Esteban will return to the latest spec sidepod after the issue from last week. We have a development plan in place and we are pushing ahead as hard as we can for the Melbourne race and beyond.“
