How Alpine's cure to 2021 F1 rules starts at the front

Alpine is, to the delight of retro rally fans everywhere, on the Formula 1 entry list. The return of the French marque to a top-flight racing championship has been largely the brainchild of new Renault CEO Luca de Meo, who beguiled pun enthusiasts everywhere with his "Renaulution" marketing strategy.

The team now shrugs off its confused yellow and black livery (which, let's face it, was never in the same ballpark as the 2010 edition) and replaces it with a matte-metallic blue, red and white concoction. If you weren't entirely certain that this was a team trying to emphasise its Frenchness, the Tricolore scheme certainly accentuates that.

Add the new identity to the new staff members and you've got a familiar team with some fresh energy seeking to build on Renault's return to F1. Having picked up Lotus from the cusp of oblivion and invested into its decaying facilities, Renault initially progressed encouragingly before stagnating somewhat in 2018-19. The team finally returned to the podium last year, but still dropped off in comparison to McLaren and Racing Point towards the end of the year after a fertile middle portion of the season.

Out goes Cyril Abiteboul, and in comes Davide Brivio. The Italian oversaw an unexpectedly successful MotoGP campaign in which second-year rider Joan Mir was crowned champion; Brivio has now come to F1 to try his luck. Daniel Ricciardo has also departed to McLaren, thus paving the way for a return for the team's prodigal son Fernando Alonso.

PLUS: Has "hungry shark" Alonso timed his F1 comeback perfectly?

The car itself, livery aside, is altogether familiar too. Although the Enstone factory has made a few key changes to boost the team's fortunes and overcome the floor restrictions imposed on the teams over the off-season, the A521 is heavily derived from the R.S.20. With the budget restrictions imposed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, it's derive to survive - if you will.

This being said, let's hope that the team fares better than the A521's actual launch, which suffered from a framerate akin to a PowerPoint presentation and Esteban Ocon looking mildly horrified at having been turned into a hologram. But we digress.

Alpine has apparently, according to the launch renders, retained the thin-nose crash structure that the team used last season. It also appears to have kept in step with its front wing philosophy - using two straightened, short-chord top flaps to keep airflow attached as the wing cambers more aggressively towards the rear edge. However, the cape attached to the underside of the nose appears to be more aggressive, and the team has slotted the outboard edges. It also links up with the aero architecture underneath, cumulatively working to send airflow outwards and further protecting the floor from the turbulence from the front tyres. With fewer developments on the floor now allowed, Alpine seems to have considered prevention the best cure for the diffuser efficiency.

The Renault R.S.20 chassis wasn't exactly inundated with puppy fat, but the Alpine makeover has extended to the sidepods too. They look incredibly small, opting to re-introduce a more traditional undercut to the formula to open up the upper face of the floor more.

"We have planned to introduce our engine upgrade, the R.E.20B from the first round of the 2021 Formula 1 season in Bahrain, which sets us up to deliver consistent performance at each and every race weekend" Remi Taffin

It does appear that the engine cover is a little larger too, suggesting that Alpine has further cut back on the cooling paraphernalia present in the sidepods and moved it further inboard. Either that, or the blue livery and accentuated French identity means the rollhoop is a Ligier JS5 tribute act. In any case, it appears that the team has worked hard on its cooling package to give the team a little more latitude with its aero package, as extracting the maximum from the partially neutered diffusers will be significant in 2021.

The engine concept has been largely carried over from 2020 too, but with a few tweaks to bring the weight up and eliminate some of the more exotic materials on cost grounds. The Renault power unit has come a long way since its 2014 hand grenade, but the French manufacturer's work was still not enough to stop McLaren from rekindling its relationship with Mercedes. However, Renault has planned one more upgrade for the first round, hoping to give Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda more of a run for their money.

"As always for a new season, the plan is to secure our reliability while maintaining a high level of engine performance at every race," said engine director Remi Taffin. "We aim to keep integrating the engine and the chassis as best as possible to maximise the overall package.

"There is a restriction on power unit upgrades effective from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021, which places an emphasis on extracting maximum performance consistently, straight away from the first race. We have planned to introduce our engine upgrade, the R.E.20B from the first round of the 2021 Formula 1 season in Bahrain, which sets us up to deliver consistent performance at each and every race weekend."

The A521 bargeboard package is not wildly different to the R.S.20's and retains the shutter-blind structure on the side of the car, which leads into a fairly short-chord boomerang. But the team has elected to part the two vanes looping over the sidepod inlet, moving away from the decision it made midway through 2019 to unite the two.

The now-free horizontal winglet on top of the sidepod inlet curls up at the tips, meaning that the team can build a tip vortex where it needs to and send it down the car to help the floor out. The vertical piece also now extends down to the floor, given that the team has had to discard the floor slot that previously occupied that space.

Like its rivals, Alpine has kept the floor relatively concealed, not wishing to give its secrets away. There is a small curl in the rear corner, meaning that the design is altogether similar to the construction that it used in free practice at Abu Dhabi.

As mentioned, there is a change forward of that, as the slot that sat alongside the raised portion of the floor is no longer there - as the new floor rules means the teams may no longer have them. This has allowed Alpine to move the vertical turning vane down, which will attempt to exercise some control of the airflow around this area. There's also a supporting fin towards the back, but there should be further changes to the design once we see it in the flesh.

But, like the other teams, Alpine will have to divert its focus to the demands of 2022's overhauled ruleset. Unlike the teams which bookend the grid, and can most likely afford to drop 2021-spec development early to increase progress on the ground-effect machines of '22, Alpine is expected to be well in the midfield mix along with McLaren, Aston Martin, Ferrari and AlphaTauri. At some point, all five will have to sacrifice further 2021 gains for the future, but the offer of greater prize money for third place overall does complicate things somewhat.

"It's important the drivers work well together and with the team as we expect them to play an essential role in the development of the car this year and provide important feedback on the directions we are taking for 2022 in the simulator" Marcin Budkowski

"This brings an interesting challenge," said executive director Marcin Budkowski, "as we have to tread carefully between the temptation of developing the A521 into the season and ramping up the whole new 2022 car project. It's a balancing act that F1 teams face every season, but the magnitude of the rule change for 2022, which is unprecedented in Formula 1, makes it even more important to begin early and get the initial concept right.

"It's important the drivers work well together and with the team as we expect them to play an essential role in the development of the car this year and provide important feedback on the directions we are taking for 2022 in the simulator."

The return of Alonso means that F1 once again has one of its box-office stars back in the fold. He may be more grizzled than his mid-2000s heyday, but his heroics in subpar McLarens show that he's still got the determination to dig deep on the days where Alpine might not necessarily be at its peak. He'll also give Ocon somebody new to tap into; the Frenchman began 2020 looking wholly unconvincing, but his performance began to improve throughout the year and his second place at the Sakhir Grand Prix was well earned for his troubles. He must improve further in '21, lest Alonso dismantles his F1 career much like a Mr. S. Vandoorne experienced in 2018...