Alpine F1 upbeat about new engine, despite not running it 'full whack'

Alpine are optimistic about their new Renault power unit that has been totally redesigned ahead of the upcoming F1 2022 season. Despite not running it at full tilt during the first testing session of the year in Barcelona, the Anglo-French outfit are pleased with what they have seen from the new split-turbo package.

Renault have taken a page out of Mercedes' 2014 book while re-engineering the power unit with one eye on the new regulatory changes in F1. Alpine's sporting director, Alan Permane, elaborated on their engine during an interview with motorsport.com. He said:

“We haven’t been running that on full power. I don’t think we’ve done a lap on what they call ‘single ICE mode’, which is the qualifying and the race mode. We’ve come close to it, but not full whack. Honestly, we haven’t spoken about the power unit – and that’s a great thing. It’s so different. It’s completely different to anything that Viry have produced before. It’s more complex, it certainly looks a lot nicer and neater. But it just goes in the car and we’ve just gone with it, which is great.”

Permane went on to add, saying:

“The drivers have had the normal comments about a little bit of driveability here, a bit of surge here and a bit of turbo lag there, but the guys have just got on top of that and played with the settings and mappings and stuff, and it’s gone away. [The engine] hasn’t even been a talking point really, which is great. I think it’s very difficult for them to talk about power compared to last year because of the fuel differences and the big power differences. But they’re certainly not complaining about it at all. We are very happy about it.”

---

Alpine opting for engine performance over reliability, as per CEO Laurent Rossi

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi confirmed that the Anglo-French team has chosen to focus on engine performance over engine reliability for their 2022 car, the A522.

During an interview with motorsport.com, Rossi elaborated on Alpine's aspirations from the split-turbo power unit Renault has developed this season. He said:

“It’s either reliability or performance, as you usually have a hard time having both. So it’s just where do you push the envelope? During the year [in development] we experienced a couple of moments where the reliability was not there, but that’s our choice because the only lever we are going to have at our disposal this year is reliability. So I told the team: you push the envelope far and I don’t care. I’d rather have to dial down on the performance but know that I’ve reached the peak of the performance I can get, than be reliable and just feel comfortable with a reliable engine that is not delivering performance.”

Rossi also expects Alpine to benefit greatly from the split-turbo engine design that promises to be a game changer for the team. The compact nature of the power unit allows it to be placed near the driver, thereby changing the center of gravity for the A522.