01 july 2022

BWT Alpine F1 Team introduced its new look A522 today as Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso geared up for this weekend’s British Grand Prix with a stop-start Friday Practice at Silverstone.

 

With its chassis team at Enstone, Oxfordshire, based just 25 miles away from Silverstone, the team introduced a new floor and new top body to this weekend’s race – the tenth round of the season – bringing visual changes to the A522.

 

Rain just before Free Practice 1 at 13:00pm local time scuppered any plans for decent running and important data gathering on its new upgrades with both drivers not setting a competitive lap-time throughout the session.

 

Conditions were much improved for Free Practice 2 with both Esteban and Fernando running Soft tyres for their opening runs. Fernando finished the session in sixth place with a lap-time of 1min 29.695secs while Esteban, after a small delay to his programme, ended in twelfth place on a 1min 30.238secs.

 

Tomorrow, the team will continue its understanding of the new upgrades on the demanding, high-speed, Silverstone Circuit with Free Practice 3 at 12:00pm local time and Qualifying at 15:00pm.

 

Esteban Ocon: 

 

"It’s always a pleasure to drive around this iconic track in front of so many passionate fans who were cheering us on all day. On our side, we had very limited running in FP1 due to the weather, so it was nice to get some more laps in the afternoon session. We did, however, spot a small crack in the bodywork towards the end of second practice and we preferred to play it safe and not push too hard at the end. We arrived this weekend with a few upgrades on the car, so it was key for us to see how the car performed today. I would like to thank everyone again at the factory who worked so hard to get these upgrades ready for our home race. Preliminary data suggests they are working well, and we are looking forward to hopefully extracting more performance tomorrow."

 

Fernando Alonso: 

 

"It was very difficult for everyone today with the wet session in FP1, which limited any meaningful running. We only had FP2 to complete any proper driving and I think we have some further evaluations to make on our package here at Silverstone. We would love to have more hours on-track but it’s the same for everyone! We’ll need to do some extra work tonight, so that we can be in the best position possible for tomorrow’s final practice and Qualifying."

 

Matt Harman, Technical Director:

 

"We’ve brought some upgrades this weekend, mainly around the floor and the bodywork, which has brought some visual differences to the A522. The main changes on the floor are around the diffuser tunnel and edges, while on the top body we have a more pronounced gully to enhance flow to the rear of the car. So, it’s been exciting to see those new parts being developed and then seeing them on the car today and credit goes to everyone involved in pushing to deliver those on time. In terms of our on-track running, this morning was very much stop-start with the mixed conditions, and we weren’t willing to take too much of a risk with such limited chance of learning anything about the car. For second practice, we were able to put together some dry running, which has given us enough data to run through to make some assessments for tomorrow. We are now carefully analysing the upgrade components and data to confirm our specification for tomorrow."