Alpine is planning to introduce 'significant' updates to its car before the summer break as the team looks to close the gap to its rivals for podiums. The team has not delivered on its promise to regularly challenge for podiums, with two double DNFs in Australia and Silverstone, though Esteban Ocon did impress with third at the Monaco Grand Prix. But since then the team has slipped down the order, with McLaren taking strides after a difficult start to the year, securing second and fourth at the British Grand Prix to take fifth in the Constructors' standings. Assessing the Enstone and Viry-based outfit's future plans, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer told media, including RacingNews365.com : "Our upgrades have worked this year and there's another significant one coming before the break. "I hope too [that it] will work because the swing of relative competitiveness does that kind of stuff. "There's an upgrade in Hungary but not that big, then there's the floor in Spa. So putting all that together I think we should we should go well."
Teams will need to make 'strategic decisions' later in season
Szafnauer believes the current aerodynamic testing limits rules, which were adjusted at the end of June to reflect what was then the Constructors' championship order, could affect teams' car development for the rest of the season. Asked how difficult it will be for teams to introduce updates, he explained: "From a cost cap perspective, we have the headroom. "From an ATR perspective, that's where we have to decide how much compromise there is on the 2024 car versus the 2023 car. "That will often be a strategic decision as to what we continue to do. But most of our efforts are still on the 2023 cars not on the 2024 car. "There is a finite time between finding a eureka moment in the tunnel, and getting it to the car. "So if you say that your last race is end of November, you go eight weeks back from that, and then you have to say 'Oh, here's my eureka moment. I may get it for one race' Is it worth it? That one race, it's not going to do anything for you. “It's not hard to fathom why you stopped developing, because whatever development you find, it's going to come to the car at Christmas when you stop racing. And then when you go back, there becomes a pretty evident time when you should start developing. “The quicker you can make those parts, the further out you can push that. So if you're a week or two better than your competitors at making floors, say it takes you eight weeks instead of 10 weeks, then you can push that out by a couple of weeks. So you might do another a couple of iterations.”
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