New chassis: the miracle cure?

In the garage Alpine, during the British Grand Prix contested at Silverstone (July 16-18), Esteban Ocon will release a car unprecedented. Certainly, visually, the A521 resembles in every way the machine he drove during the nine previous events, but the Frenchman wants to gain new momentum in this season thanks to a new chassis. The Norman, caught in a negative spiral since his multi-year signing with the French team, could not find an explanation for his poor form during the France-Styria-Austria triple header (twice 14th, one retirement, two eliminations in Q3 in Austria ). “I hope to do a reset at Silverstone,” he defends himself. I still put just as much effort into my work compared to the beginning of the year, I go to the factory as often (fromenstone) than before and I give 100% like before signing my contract. » While his illustrious teammate Fernando Alonso continues the arrivals in the top 10 from Azerbaijan in particular after having requested a change in the direction of his Alpine, the 3 GP2015 Series champion suffered from the comparison.

The Competition Director for A arrow, Marcin Budkowski, tried to provide an explanation for this poor form. “Esteban had two difficult races in Austria and we are still investigating if there are technical reasons behind that. To eradicate any doubt, the team made the decision to make significant changes to their car for Silverstone, including a new chassis. Esteban has done very well at the start of the season and qualified the car on the third row of the grid on merit in two consecutive races a few weekends ago, so we are working together to get him to bounce back, and this weekend is the perfect opportunity to do so. » Between the lines, a change of chassis would therefore be the ideal solution... when the engineers and the driver cannot find one.

This recourse to a magical remedy is reminiscent of other cases in Formula 1. In 2018, Stoffel Vandoorne, then at the bottom of the bucket at McLaren, had convinced his staff to replace his chassis on the sidelines of the Hungarian Grand Prix. “The team put a lot of effort into trying to understand the issues we had. At the moment we don't know (what caused the problems). There is no specific area where we can say "okay, this is the source of the problem" and for the free practice we set up some tests on the two team cars to better understand the situation . » A few months later, the Belgian left the sport with 16th place in the Drivers' standings, and only four points scored since the chassis change in nine races.

Psychological boost

Of course, the Franco-Belgian comparison stops at this simple choice of equipment, but in both cases, the poor performances are never "sourced" and the nebulous evil is not (publicly) stated. This remedy could thus be compared to a placebo: without knowing its specific effectiveness compared to the previous mechanical part, the new chassis can act on the patient (here the pilot) by restoring confidence and motivation in his mount. Usually experts in debriefing and data analysis at levels that ordinary mortals hardly understand, the pilots seem helpless in these situations. This applies to Daniel Ricciardo.

The Australian, transferred to McLaren this winter, foundered in the streets of Monaco, finishing one lap behind his colleague Lando Norris. However, Monaco is a place that he was particularly fond of during its splendor at Red Bull (2nd in 2016, winner in 2018). A change of chassis was then mentioned, without us knowing, two months later, if the operation materialized.

Sometimes, the chassis is rightly blamed. This was already the case for Daniel Ricciardo at the start of the 2020 campaign, his Renault RS20 hiding a crack discovered during intense investigations. Once the car was like new at the beginning of August, the results brought a smile to the Losange's face, with two podiums acquired in the fall. Same case for Carlos Sainz Jr. The chassis of his McLaren MCL35 had been changed before the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix to improve the cooling of the power unit. Guess what happened next? A glaring return to form (2nd at Monza, five top 5s) which allowed the Madrilenian to overtake his teammate Lando Norris in the Championship, although he was in better shape after coming out of confinement.

The use of a new chassis thus seems to constitute a last chance operation in certain cases. It may depend on mechanical damage, and is therefore not the responsibility of the driver, but very often, the change of chassis is carried out to reassure the driver of his abilities to redress the situation. We want as proof of this the comment of Valtteri Bottas during its test with a chassis Mercedes brand new at Paul-Ricard last June. “I'm confident with the car, I can trust it and I think that's the biggest difference. » The former presenter of F1 and WEC, Mark Webber, provided Australian media Nine with an explanation regarding the difficulties of his compatriot Daniel Ricciardo. “He doesn't really make any mistakes but he lacks pure speed, he just can't look for it at the moment. But he has too much class for this to last too long. He will get through this. We are talking about the “Human-Machine Interface” (MMI in English). He's going to have to work harder, it's the only way to move forward. But he'll get through it, I'll be very, very surprised if he doesn't. »