22/02/2022
NEWS STORY
Alpine's technical boss, Matt Harman believes that aerodynamically the A522 will reap the benefits of the team's review of its engine architecture.
"At the very beginning of these regulations, we actually started with the power unit mainly because it does set some of the key areas of the car aerodynamically," explains Harman, according to F1i.
"We did a full review of this area of the car and we decided to change the architecture of that power unit extensively in all areas including the internal combustion engine, the ERS, the turbo and its positioning in the car and that has given us some real gains in terms of our ability to express ourselves aerodynamically and achieve that ultimate lap time of the car," he adds.
While the engine division at Viry initially led the way, it worked in close collaboration with its sister organisation at Enstone.
"In terms of the Viry and Enstone integration we are a works team and we need to make 100% use of that benefit and we have done," says Harman. "So from the very start of our programme we worked closely together to actually start off with the people, start off how we integrate the people first, how we integrate the functions and from that comes very good engineering conversations and from that comes excellent engineering solutions.
"It's been primarily focused on the organisations and making sure that although we are separate in terms of geography, in terms of our engineering discussions we are together and we are together on every decision.
"I think that's an important part of being a works team in modern Formula 1."
Check out our A522 gallery, here.