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Alpine's 2024 F1 car has reportedly failed the FIA's lateral test. This could be a major setback for the Enstone-based team since they have to reconfigure the chassis and perform the test once again. With less than a month of pre-season testing remaining, Alpine's A524 car has not even been approved by the FIA.
A lateral test is essentially a safety check in which 300 kN of force is applied to the sides of the car to see whether the body is strong enough to take such loads during crashes. As per motorsport.com, the aerodynamics team at Alpine wanted to shave off some kilos from the car. Hence, they made the chassis a little too light and fragile, due to which the car failed the lateral test.
The French team will be hosting their season launch on February 7, 2024, where they will introduce their new F1 and WEC cars. Only time will tell when their F1 car will get a green light from the FIA.
Alpine making drastic changes to their 2024 F1 car
Alpine's technical director, Matt Harman, recently spoke about his team creating a brand new F1 car for the 2024 season. He initially compared the 2022 season to 2023, going into the details of the team's development.
Later on, he spoke about unlocking some areas of performance in the car, because of which they are creating a brand new one for 2024. He said:
"We didn't we didn't do as well as we did on A522. I think we had a great year [in 2022], that year, I think every time we touched the development of the car, we put load, and we took a lot of weight off the car as well. So there was there was a lot of performance to be had."
Harman added:
“I think that's why for the following year's car, we've had to really unlock some real estate again, which is why the car is completely new, front to back. 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."
In the 2023 F1 season, Alpine suffered several retirements from races, some of which included reliability issues. Esteban Ocon retired from many more races when compared to his teammate, Pierre Gasly. At the end of 2023, the Enstone-based team secured sixth place in the constructors' championship table with only 120 points.
