Alpine A521

[diffuser]

Interesting

[F1T]

Alpine already switching to more compact rear end

Lots of people were stunned by Alpine's decision to fix a bulky airbox on the A521, but the team have already run their new car today with a new, more compact design that sees the rear end of the car considerably slimmed down. Along with the airbox that now tapers down more more quickly, the sidepod air outlets are smaller, leaving a lot more room low above the car's floor for clean airflow.

As the image shows, Alpine were focusing on front end aero on Friday morning with a rake fitted in the front wheel's wake. Today, with the updated rear bodywork, a rake was fitted at the back of the car as Alonso made his debut with the A521.

The update however doesn't change anything about the obvious design decisions that were made at Enstone. As confirmed by Alpine's Technical Director Marcin Budkowski on Saturday morning, the team opted to fit more components in the airbox area to be able to slim down the sidepods in an attempt to reduce downforce losses as a result of the narrowed floor.

“It’s a technical choice,” he said. “We found that slimming the sidepods was a positive direction, which is nothing new really. So we’ve repackaged and relocated some of the bulky things in the car and put them behind the air inlet.

“Yes, it gives a fairly spectacularly bulky shape on the car, but we found it works for us.”

Of course, no gain is for free, and Budkowski concedes there were a few compromises to be made.

“There are centre of gravity compromises but usually the aero performance wins over weight and centre of gravity."

Overall, this is a continuation of the design direction that was already overly obvious on the {Renault} R.S.20, resulting this year in smaller sidepod air inlets - the outboard top edges have been more rounded - and a very "natural" shape of the sidepods in general.

[Blackout]

The one million dollar question is: which cooler/bulky element did they move the top center

Alpine already switching to more compact rear end

Lots of people were stunned by Alpine's decision to fix a bulky airbox on the A521, but the team have already run their new car today with a new, more compact design that sees the rear end of the car considerably slimmed down. Along with the airbox that now tapers down more more quickly,
Overall, this is a continuation of the design direction that was already overly obvious on the {Renault} R.S.20
//f1tcdn.net/images/development/2021/ba ... idepod.jpg

Today they ran the standard roll hoop cover length that they used each year since 2018.
Roll hoop is basically the same since 2018. Yesterday is the fist time they extend its cover laterally.

[Blackout]

Hungary 2020- Bahrain 2021

[jagunx51]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwQ4W-zXEAA ... =4096x4096

what is behind the airbox? that is fat

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cras ... 152568.jpg

What’s behind Alpine's jumbo airbox

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/what ... x/5707809/

But the first thing to say is that the airbox and roll over structure of the A521 has not changed if we compare it with the RS19 or RS20. Instead, it’s the bodywork behind that’s been significantly increased in size.

The reasoning for this, although it might sound odd at first, is predominantly to mitigate the incoming regulation changes that narrow the floor and rear brake ducts and see the lower portion of the diffuser strakes lopped off.

Whereas the rest of the grid have pushed-on and developed the downwash style sidepod arrangement which generally results in the airflow running over the top of the sidepod and meeting with the floor as quickly as possible, the A521 has an arrangement more akin to what teams used in the pre-hybrid era.

This is for a more heavily undercut frontal section and higher waisted sidepod along the entire length.




This creates more space between the sidepod and the floor in order that the team deals with the issues created by the new regulations in its own unique way.

However, to achieve its aerodynamic goals, the team had to rethink the cooling architecture of the car, resulting in the radiators and other hardware housed within the sidepods having to be repositioned.

The arrangement that Renault has run in previous years has already seen a great deal of that hardware packed in around the powerunit due to the makeup of its cooling package. But with even more hardware to deal with, the region has increased quite dramatically in size.



So, in essence, the changes are driven by the regulation changes and are simply Alpine’s way of dealing with these issues, whilst trying to recover as much performance as possible, without damaging the car’s overall performance envelope.

Irrespective of the genuine technical reasoning behind the changes, it’s easy to draw comparisons with a variety of different airbox and engine cover solutions in Formula 1’s past...

[Blackout]

@Blackout, Guess there will not be a shortage of pics of RBR without an PU cover ????

.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwQ4W-zXEAA ... =4096x4096

what is behind the airbox? that is fat

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cras ... 152568.jpg

Atleast this
https://i.imgur.com/Znbv8rM.jpg

I wonder what other cooler did they remove from the sidepods this year... only two air-air intercoolers + 1 engine water rad + 1 engine oil rad remained in the sidepods since they moved the ERS coolers to the centre of the car in 2018...

[Blackout]

There is something odd at each side of the gearbox... looks like winglets... an internal aero fairing?

[aerofoilf1]

Another floor option

[aerofoilf1]

Front of floor edge compare 2020 vs 2021

[aerofoilf1]

Rear corner comparison 2020 vs 2021

[TimmTurbo]

Man that car looks ugly.... the airbox is out of any proportion. No wonder why nobody wants to get that PU

[bucker]

Man that car looks ugly.... the airbox is out of any proportion. No wonder why nobody wants to get that PU

Because PU is reason for bulkier look....

[GoranF1]

Livery and Reliability very good. Question marks over pace and speed.

[outer_bongolia]

They are running the shorter roll hoop cover today + the smaller hot air exits at the back of the car
https://i.imgur.com/6oLkfVF.jpg

Wow. Comparing these pictures, Ocon looks like he’s sitting a lot higher than Alonso. I wonder what it does to the air coming in from the lower inlet.

[cheeRS]

They are running the shorter roll hoop cover today + the smaller hot air exits at the back of the car
https://i.imgur.com/6oLkfVF.jpg

Wow. Comparing these pictures, Ocon looks like he’s sitting a lot higher than Alonso. I wonder what it does to the air coming in from the lower inlet.

He sure does! Wonder how that effects the protection from the halo