(Reuters) – French manufacturer Alpine unveiled their 2022 Formula One challenger in Paris on Monday, becoming the ninth team to take the wraps off their car for the upcoming season ahead of the first winter test later this week.
The Renault-owned team’s new A522 has been designed to the sport’s radical new rules, with the cleaner, swept-back aerodynamics and larger 18-inch wheels, aimed at improving wheel-to-wheel racing.
It also features a revised livery, with the pink colour scheme of new title partner and water technology company BWT mixed in with the team’s traditional blue.
Alpine’s target is to fight for the championship within 100 races of the start of Formula One’s new rules era, which will begin with the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 20.
“In 2022, we want to show constant progress with comprehensive developments across all sites to ensure we are contenders for the title in the future,” said Alpine chief executive Laurent Rossi.
“We are going in the right direction and we want to carry on our climb to the summit.”
The outfit, who have finished fifth in the constructors’ standings for the last three years, recently beefed up their technical department and last week announced the signing of former Aston Martin team boss Otmar Szafnauer as new team principal in a move aimed at reversing their plateauing form.
The team, who head into 2022 with an unchanged driver line up of double world champion Fernando Alonso and Frenchman Esteban Ocon, returned to the top step of the podium last season, with Ocon handing them their first win since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix in Hungary.
“I’ve had the displeasure of racing against these formidable competitors,” said Szafnauer.
“I remember too well when they beat us in Hungary and didn’t put a foot wrong,” he said referring to Ocon’s win ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who finished second on the road but was later disqualified for a fuel irregularity.
Alpine displayed a 2022 show car at their Paris event but released images of their actual car, which is currently being readied for the first pre-season test in Barcelona which gets underway on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Abhishek Takle; editing by Christian Radnedge)
