Latest development 2021 for Alpine in Baku

Planned for several weeks, the latest development which should benefit theAlpine 521 this season will be installed on the car French this week as part of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku (June 4-6).

The Blues had already introduced an evolution to their mount on the Monaco side, with a new feature located in the area of ​​the side deflectors and the front part of the floor. The performances were not really affected, despite the 2 points for 9th place snatched by Esteban Ocon race.  

« Monaco put a slight stop to our progress after two promising races in Portugal and Spain, admits Marcin Budkowski, executive director Alpine, in the presentation of the Azerbaijan GP sent by the French team. 

It was overall a poor performance and the team should not hide it. Even though we took points, we are not satisfied with our performance compared to our direct competitors. Some of the teams we were fighting against recently were clearly more competitive than us and they benefited greatly from it. 

We must learn the lessons and apply those which will naturally be linked to Baku, another urban track where the tire compounds will be the same as in Monaco ».

The small evolution » expected in Baku is not intended to correct the poor performance Monte Carlo since it is part of the long-planned A521 development program. This is even its final stage, Alpine having firmly set the course for the 2022 aerodynamic revolution, like almost all of the teams on the grid. 

This does not mean, however, that the French team will stop developing its car. 

« If we learn things on the track via upgrades or different experiments and we find an “easy” vein of performance, it would be a shame not to exploit it, Budkowski told us in the Principality.  

We will continue to pull the strings that we find here and there with the hope of unlocking a little more potential but it will not be big development programs as we can see in a normal season where the car progresses up to Singapore, even Abu Dhabi ». 

When we asked him what nature the Baku talk would be, the boss of the Blues replied with a touch of humor: “ Carbon bits painted blue in the front area ». 

What would be missing is a flexible fin...