LONDON, England (PSF) — As the final team to reveal their challenger before Bahrain pre-season testing begins, Alpine will look to retain their title as the top midfield team while also making gains towards fighting the top three team with their new car, the A523. The French team will have an all French driver lineup this season with the return of Esteban Ocon alongside former AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly who replaces Fernando Alonso who left for Aston Martin. The storyline among this duo is the heated rivalry that had previously brewed in their teenage years growing up as young junior racers in karting. The two Frenchmen being the same age have grown up together racing in the same series and their careers have been linked together due to this. A few on-track incidents have led to the pair’s relationship to be strained ever since their teenage years. This made Alpine’s decision to bring in Pierre Gasly in as their second driver as opposed to Mick Schumacher, who Ocon campaigned for as the two are good friends, that much more interesting. Hopefully the two can let bygones be bygone and won’t bring too many headaches to Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer.

Potential drama aside, the A523 cosmetically is very similar to last year’s A522 except this year introduces accents of the exposed black carbon fiber that many teams have incorporated for this season. Alpine have also brought back their secondary BWT-pink livery that will be used during select race weekends this season. The BWT brand is in its second season as the title sponsor for Alpine and their presence is certainly felt the most among all title sponsors across the grid. I am personally not a fan of the overwhelming influence BWT has on the Alpine car. It just feels like it creates a loss of brand identity. The car shouldn’t appear to be BWT F1 Team; there should be no mistaking what team the car is representing. In 2021, Alpine’s first year in Formula 1 after the Renault brand name change, they successfully produced a car that introduced Alpine sporting the red, white, and blue of France. Ever since then, they have abandoned this color scheme for their car and resorted to heavily utilizing the pink and blue of their title sponsor.

Looking at the A523 from a mechanical design standpoint, Alpine have made some slight adjustments from last season. The most glaringly obvious difference from last season is the removal of the shark fin on the back of the car. They have also introduced a longer nose on the front wing as well as additional winglets close to the mirrors. As the unofficial champions of the midfield last season, the car did not need any major changes or risks taken to make large leaps in performance improvement. The biggest issue for Alpine last year was not the car, it was the engine. Unnecessary DNFs caused by engine issues gave Otmar Szafnauer along with Alpine fans headaches all season. The team’s strides in reliability should be something to look out for this season.

Alpine is a team that should be taken very seriously this season. They are one of four teams that has a driver lineup that consists of two race winners. However, what’s held back Alpine has not been the performance of other teams, rather it has been themselves that seems to hinder their performance. Last season it was the unreliable engine and the testy racing between Ocon and Alonso. The issue this year? We won’t know until Round 1 in Bahrain, but all eyes are on the on-track battles between friends-turned-rivals-turned-teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.