Alpine reveal incoming A522 upgrades in bid to beat McLaren to P4 in constructors’ fight

Alpine will bring a new floor to Marina Bay for the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix, with Technical Director Pat Fry explaining that they expect a “reasonable step” in performance as they try to hold off the challenge from McLaren going into the final stretch of the season.

Ahead of the Singapore weekend, Alpine sit fourth in the constructors’ championship with an 18-point lead over rivals McLaren. Technical chief Fry outlined the upcoming update to Alpine’s A522 and said there will be more to come, with developments also planned for the United States Grand Prix on October 21-23.

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“We are bringing an entire new floor to both cars this weekend, which will also carry over to Japan for the next race,” said Fry. “Visually, on the surface, it’s not much different to the previous version as most of the developments are underneath. It should bring a reasonable step in performance, though.

“At recent races, we’ve managed to bring a strong set of developments to the car, and they’ve all worked as expected. We have some more upgrades to bring this season before we begin to wind down by Austin at the end of October. Everyone at Enstone has worked exceptionally well on meeting targets for developments, so credit to everyone involved for their hard work.”

Fernando Alonso – who retired from the Italian Grand Prix, as Alpine left without points for the first time since Round 4 of the season at Imola – expects a return to form this weekend at Marina Bay. The two-time champion saw a string of 10 consecutive points finishes end last time out at Monza.

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“Unfortunately, we had to retire the car in Italy where we were hoping to make it an 11th points finish in a row,” he said. “The car didn’t feel as strong in Monza as it did the previous two weekends, so we’ve looked into this to try and understand why. We hope to be back to our usual competitive level in Singapore.

“The whole team have been working hard on a new upgrade package for this race, so I’m excited to see what it produces.”

On Sunday, Alonso is set to break the record for most Formula 1 Grands Prix starts, chalking up his 350th Grand Prix to beat Kimi Raikkonen’s benchmark.