Alpine's 2024 Recovery

[Jericoke]

No one seems to be talking about how Alpine started the season so embarrassingly bad that they shuffled their team personnel, and yet they've achieved two points finishes that were on merit, not just luck.

They're not challenging for the championship, but I feel like they're on a trajectory for solid midfield results.

Maybe becoming a strong 'midfield' team isn't as exciting as McLaren and Ferrari threatening to win on a regular basis.  And maybe personnel shuffles and intra team conflict are more exciting stories, but I think Alpine deserves credit for making some of the most impressive growth I've seen in an F1 team in the cap era!

I really hope they can keep it up: the Enstone team has a long history of being overperforming underdogs, and I would love to see that again.

[John S]

Really Jeri, no I mean Really?????

A full factory team being overperforming underdogs is hardly the description I'd use for the Renault funded outfit from Enstone.

Gone are the plucky Kimi days with Genii capital's, Lotus badged, mid to front running cars of yesteryear. Now they're a properly funded Renault factory outfit.

I can't find any excitement, or even any consolation, for an underperforming factory team, even if its based in the UK.

Not sure what's gone wrong, but Alpine/Renault's fall but grace is even bigger than Mercedes if we take our measurements right. 

[lkjohnson1950]

I think it points up one problem with a cost cap and limited testing; if you miss the mark with your original design/concept, you're stuck. you only have limited funds to spend to correct the problem and you can't do real world testing to see if your upgrades work. I don't know how you would address this, but Merc is a prime example. They tried a far different design than anyone else with their first G/E chassis and it wasn't successful. They've been playing catch up ever since.