Alpine A521 Speculation Thread

[stan_french]

The RS-20 was a very interesting car, with in essence a 2-year-old tub, but with a radically new front nose and a bargeboard, they extracted a surprising amount of performance from it. We now turn ourselves to 2021 along with the modified regulations. How will Alpine recover the lost downforce, and how will they develop the rest of the car on a very "old" chassis? If you're wondering this, then this thread is for you!

[Jolle]

With or without the development limit, for the last year of a regulation you don’t make drastic changes, that’s why, when they thought 2020 would be the last year, all teams just developed their 2019 cars. McLaren during 2013-2014 is a prime example how you’ll mis out when you go out is sequence. A new concept needs a lot of development to tune out the rough edges and iron out all the stalls under the floor which will prevent you from development for the most important car of any rule period; the first one. Now it’s just a bit limiting that hey use tokens for specific parts instead of a round the car tune up.

[testing]

Last year, Enstone focused on the front of the car, this year they probably focus on the rear: a new air intake and ERS-cooling layout to shrink the rear end and create a more direct transition between sidepod and floor.

[piast9]

The title of the thread has to change as they announced that the car will be Alpine A521.

https://www.f1technical.net/news/23007


And it will apparently be black which I cannot understand. Shouldn't the Alpine be blue?

[RedNEO]

The title of the thread has to change as they announced that the car will be Alpine A521.

https://www.f1technical.net/news/23007
https://f1tcdn.net/images/news/2020/alpinef1.jpg

And it will apparently be black which I cannot understand. Shouldn't the Alpine be blue?

[TimmTurbo]

The title of the thread has to change as they announced that the car will be Alpine A521.

https://www.f1technical.net/news/23007
https://f1tcdn.net/images/news/2020/alpinef1.jpg

And it will apparently be black which I cannot understand. Shouldn't the Alpine be blue?

The black is a preliminary painting for winter only. The car that will race in March will look different

[Jolle]

The title of the thread has to change as they announced that the car will be Alpine A521.

https://www.f1technical.net/news/23007
https://f1tcdn.net/images/news/2020/alpinef1.jpg

And it will apparently be black which I cannot understand. Shouldn't the Alpine be blue?

Alpine A521? Nice fancy name for the Enstone Stoke-on-Trent

[hUirEYExbN]

Alpine A521? Nice fancy name for the Enstone Stoke-on-Trent

That would be amusing if it were the case. That's literally the road their facility is on, right?

[Jolle]

Alpine A521? Nice fancy name for the Enstone Stoke-on-Trent

That would be amusing if it were the case. That's literally the road their facility is on, right?

Unfortunately it isn’t, but for comedic pleasure you can say it is

[RedNEO]

A 3D render of the A521 ‘showcar’
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/f1-2021 ... 693e08f857

[cplchanb]

A 3D render of the A521 ‘showcar’
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/f1-2021 ... 693e08f857

Maybe Racing Point used this 2 years ago....

[Blackout]

The RS-20 was a very interesting car, with in essence a 2-year-old tub, but with a radically new front nose and a bargeboard, they extracted a surprising amount of performance from it. We now turn ourselves to 2021 along with the modified regulations. How will Alpine recover the lost downforce, and how will they develop the rest of the car on a very "old" chassis? If you're wondering this, then this thread is for you!

The second biggest 2020 change after the nose went relatively unnoticed: the sidepod philosophy. Renault ditched their heavily undercut sidepods of 2017-2018-2019 for RB-like sidepods (basically displacing the widest part of the undercut backward and adding more overcut) along other changes...
The bargeboards were an evolution of their previous designs.

But unlike RP who adopted "RB" sidepods during 2019, Renault didnt alter the 2019 internals much, the radiators, exhaut etc, they only reworked the bodywork
https://i.imgur.com/M65kNxp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ujLLd0K.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/YpGrJGl.jpg
viewtopic.php?p=895570#p895570

In 2021, they might modify the internals to sqeeze out more space from the sidepods etc... but I doubt it, we're talking about the most conservative team, which doesnt want to sepnd much money on the current cars...

*RP 2019
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EAU_fpIWsAA ... ame=medium
https://i.imgur.com/Gszfa0c.jpg

[GoranF1]

Renault is putting all effort in 22 car, as a part of Alonso contract. Biggest focus for 21 car is PU.

[RedNEO]

Up until 4 weeks ago the rules wouldn’t even allow all effort to be put into 2022 car (aero work was banned). Alpine like all teams are going to have put a lot of work into regaining lost downforce on this years car. They are apparently spending tokens on rear end suspension and cooling system.

[PlatinumZealot]

They say this car is the dark horse. Just insider sources saything they have found a way to minimise downforce loss from the new rules.