Alpine will pull the covers off its 2024 F1 charger on February 7 as its motorsport season launch that will also include its World Endurance Championship programme.
After last summer’s management shake-up and turmoil that saw both team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane leave the team, Bruno Famin has taken charge of the Enstone squad.
Famin was initially named on an interim basis, but all signs point to the Alpine motorsport vice-president remaining at the helm of the F1 team for the foreseeable future.
Alpine will once again entrust its cars to Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, but the French outfit will be seeking to significantly improve its results following a disappointing 2023 campaign that left the team sixth in F1’s Constructors Championship.
The team is set to tackle its 2024 season with an A524 car overhauled from “front-to-back” as a result of the clear limitations of its predecessor.
Alpine F1 technical director Matt Harman admits that progress last year on the A523 fell short of expectations, prompting the decision to prioritize a fresh approach for 2024.
“We've had to really unlock some real estate again, which is why the car is completely new, front-to-back,” commented Harman.
“So I think you'll see that up and down the grid, because the car needs to last for a couple of years while we look for the future."
Like his colleagues, Harman was a keen observer last season of Red Bull’s dominant RB19. But the Briton insists Alpine won’t stand a chance of improving its performance by merely copying its rival’s championship-winning machine.
"We think we've understood it quite well,” he said when asked what he had learned from examining this year's title winning car. “We think we understand what they're doing.
“But in the end, if we just follow those people then we will never be in front of them," he stated. "I think it's a real mantra for us that we need to be inspired by these people, but we need to go our own way.
"You can't click your fingers and just imagine it overnight," he added. "We understand our direction, but I think we've also understood some of the other cars on the grid as well.
“There are some other great cars there as well that have got some really interesting developments" he pointed out. "It's about trying to understand what you're doing, what they're doing."
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