Alpine have confirmed that Esteban Ocon will join Fernando Alonso in running the team's new-specification floor in Miami this weekend. Alonso trialled the upgrade at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, despite the Sprint format limiting free practice time, with Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer reporting that it "worked as expected". As such, Ocon's A522 will be fitted with the revised design for the inaugural Miami GP weekend, while Alonso will keep his version despite sustaining damage in a first-lap clash with Haas' Mick Schumacher last time out.
Ocon joins Alonso with Alpine's new floor
Szafnauer expressed his satisfaction at Alpine's initial developments and promised "more to come" at future races. "The upgrades we brought to the A522 worked as expected in Imola, which is a great sign that the hard work behind the scenes at the factory is paying off, especially in developing and validating these aerodynamic updates," said Szafnauer. "As a result of those efforts, the new spec floor we had on Fernando's car will be on both cars this weekend. "Although Fernando's floor suffered significant damage in the race because of the first lap incident with Mick, we were able to recover the part and make the necessary repairs. "It's great that both cars have the upgrade, which performed to expectations. "There's more to come in the coming races in this very important and intense development race."
Where do Alpine go from here?
Going forward, Szafnauer is hopeful that Alpine can turn their encouraging one-lap pace into better results on race days, with the team having to settle for a haul of 22 points over the first four races. Alonso has also rued his and the team's misfortune, recently suggesting that he could have scored "20 or 30 points" instead of the two he is stuck on. "As we've seen at the first four races, our low fuel, qualifying pace looks very competitive," Szafnauer added. "That said, points are scored on Sundays, so while we qualify well, we need to capitalise on these promising starting positions. "The team has been working hard to identify these areas and work through different set-up changes to help improve our race pace while also managing our tyres a bit differently. "It's a fine balance between improving race pace without impacting our qualifying speed."
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