After the premiere of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia with their cars in version rosaas a special nod to its new BWT sponsor, Alpine returns to the decoration predominantly blue this weekend for the Australian Grand Prix. Superstitions aside, Fernando Alonso hopes that this new stage will be more favorable to him after his last abandonment by failure to Jiddah .
The Asturian lamented then that the good performance shown by the A-522 in the pounds and the classification was not reflected later in the results in race: “It is incredible that with these benefits we have only two points”, remarked the Asturian, who finished ninth in the inaugural test of Sakhir.
The pink car, very similar to the Racing Point sponsored by BWT in 2021 before its conversion to Aston Martin, was not very successful among Alonso fans, who showed their rejection on social media during the presentation of the new Alpine cars for 2022: “Why have a decoration when you can have two?”, the team announced in February, when it announced the two versions.
third engine
This weekend in Albert Park, Alonso will not only debut the blue car, but a new power unit after the failure detected in the water pump that caused his withdrawal 15 laps from the end in the GP of the Saudi Arabia. It will be the third engine for the two-time champion in just three races, as after finishing the Bahrain GP the French team had already discovered a first problem in its engine and sent it to the Viry factory to analyze it.
In Jeddah, Alonso’s pace with the A-522 was very competitive and allowed him to be in Q3, as in Sakhir. But all expectations for the weekend were dashed when the Asturian’s car stopped in the middle of the race: “No power”, cried Fernando, who hit his helmet angrily when he realized that no could continue.
According to team manager Laurent Rossi, “We have identified the cause of the problem and I hope it is fixed for Melbourne. It failed because the engine parts are very new. The advantage is that it is neither structural nor intrinsic. We must not question the engine itself, nor the design, nor the architectural choices made in the concept, because the engine does what was expected.
In the same league
“The problem is the water pump, which is integrated into the engine. As it disintegrated, it fell to the bottom of the engine cooling circuit. If we had wanted to repair it, we would have broken the seal. So we lost the engine. Although its physical integrity is not directly affected, for us it is already a lesser engine “, Rossi explained in ‘Autohebdo’.
This means that in Australia, Alonso will have to ride in his third power unit of the season and thus will reach, in just three races, the limit allowed for the entire 2022 season. From the fourth there will be a penalty on the grid. . And the World Cup has just begun!
However, Fernando sends a message of optimism: “We are very happy with the performance of our engine. We think we are playing in the same league as the others this year. We were able to fight on the straight with others in Jeddah and Bahrain. We look forward to seeing if that is confirmed. The Ferrari engine and the Honda are still a bit ahead, but Renault is there. We lack another team of reference, but the data is promising “, concludes Alonso, who is confident that the car problems will be definitively solved in Australia.
