Alpine: You can’t win if you copy the Red Bull F1 team

Alpine Formula 1 technical director Matt Harman said the team would not try to beat leader Red Bull by replicating the 2023 car, but would instead pursue its own development route.

Harman believes Alpine has a good understanding of what makes the Red Bull 2023 car competitive and what makes other cars so fast. But he insists such knowledge will inspire the team’s individual direction as big steps await after finishing sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.

“I think we did a pretty good job,” he said of the RB19. “I think we understand what I’m doing. You can’t just snap your fingers and imagine this overnight. We understand our direction. But I think we also understand some of the other cars on the grid. “There are other great cars that have been very interesting experiences and it’s about trying to understand what you’re doing and what they’re doing. “If we go after these people, we’re never going to support them. I think that’s the real mantra for us: We have to be inspired by these people, but we have to go our own way.”

This season, each team will face an additional challenge as they must build a car that will serve as the basis for their rivals in 2025. Ultimately, the new 2026 regulations will become the focus of development and absorb financial and aerodynamic testing resources.

The team will not be able to start aerodynamic testing from 2026 until early next year, but there are no restrictions on mechanical work. “I think it’s important to look beyond the cars you see around you,” Harman said. “If people see the cars they see now in 2025, they will be very outdated. “It’s important to be inspired by what you see. “But we need to look much further than that to get a two-year horizon.”

Harman admitted that the basic architecture of the A523 prevented the team from implementing many of the developments it had planned for last season. Instead, it delayed adoption by up to 2,024 units.

“The chassis and what we call the suspension mount or body gave us a volume problem,” he said. “It limited us a little bit because of our own ideas and developments, as well as the intellectual property of other cars.

“We had planned to upgrade the floor at the end of the season, but in the end we decided not to and we brought that performance into next year’s car. “To get maximum performance, we needed a little more volume, and this car didn’t have that.”

Harman noted that the A523 has several advantages. “I think there are some really good things about our car. We try to be humble about these things. We know we’re still not where we want to be, and we want to talk about what we need to improve, not what we think we’re good at.

“Honestly, I prefer to focus on what we need to do better than to point out what I think we could have done better.