"The car is going in the right direction" - Alpine's engine chief says '2022 is already a success' for the French outfit

Alpine power unit chief Bruno Famin says 2022 is “already a success” for the French outfit given that they were able to claw back lost performance after the introduction of E10 fuel. Speaking to Motorsport Espanol following the Imola GP, he said:

“I think 2022 is already a success in a sense, because we’re back in the game in terms of performance, and it’s kind of a proof of concepts in the way we work together, to make everybody happy rowing in the same direction.”

Ahead of the planned developmental freeze of power units in the summer of 2022, teams will need to finalize the specs of their power units and ensure they are up to performance and reliability standards.

Having successfully adapted their power unit to suit the new fuel, while retaining performance and reliability characteristics, especially with the absence of a customer team, is a huge win for the French outfit, claims Famin. He added, saying:

“The big step is what you see on the grid, because we don’t know the figures of the others, only our own, we see that the car is going in the right direction. What matters to me is the performance of the car, maybe we could have had better data on the dyno, but with a slower result.”

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Having a customer team would be an advantage, says Alpine PU chief as team considers supplying Andretti F1 entry from 2024

Alpine PU chief Bruno Famin says having a customer team would be an advantage as the French outfit considers supplying Andretti Global’s potential F1 entry from 2024 onwards. Speaking to Motorsport Espanol, Famin said:

“It is always good to have a client team to have a point of reference with which to compare. To do more mileage in pre-season testing, for example. I’m sure the more we do, the more information we will have and the more interesting it will be. Of course, it’s a limitation, but it’s still interesting from a technical point of view.”

Alpine is currently the only power unit manufacturer in F1 that does not have a customer team. The French outfit has only been supplying its own team since the end of 2020 after McLaren switched over to Mercedes.