The Alpine Formula 1 team says the wind tunnel problems it had in winter took several weeks of development time – resulting in a loss of tenths of a second per lap.
The Enstone-based team had a more difficult start to the season than expected as they fell off the top of the midfield.
However, rapid progress has been made in improving the A521 in recent weeks and drivers Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso performed better in practice in Portugal on Friday.
Marcin Budkowski, Alpine General Manager, reflected on the recently uncovered problem of the wind tunnel and said the team had two main problems.
“We had problems related to the actual change in regulations and the actual various flow characteristics it put on the car,” he said. “And we had problems with the hardware, if you like, the tunnel and the tests.
“The consequence is not that we have lost more performance than others or have lost otherwise, but only that we have lost time, if you want, development time, which is a valuable currency in Formula 1.
“Everyone has the same amount of tests to do. It is limited by the regulations. So if you’re trying to stabilize your aerodynamic flow characteristics, or if you’re trying to get your tunnel to give you the right numbers for the others during that time, keep evolving the car and putting power to use. So that’s exactly what happened.
“We lost a few weeks of development and weeks of development have turned into tenths of a second.”
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Budkowski believes that the problems Alpine faced were unique and have now been resolved. Therefore, the team should not run into deficit when the transition to the developments of 2022 begins.
“We have solved our problems, so let’s keep investing and improve our wind tunnel and keep our fingers crossed. We won’t have any more problems next year,” he said.
“But it is certainly up to us to improve our understanding and development skills.”
Although Alpine brings more speed to his car, Budkowski admits that the performance gap to Ferrari and McLaren is still too big for his taste at the moment.
“We’re working hard to improve the car. We brought some developments to Imola, we carried out further tests [in Portugal]So we’re taking small steps to improve the car’s performance, ”he said.
“But the gap with the guys we’d like to fight with, the McLarens and the Ferraris, is a little too big at the moment. We’re still working on closing it but it will be difficult to do in the next few races. “
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