Alpine unveiled its 2022 F1 challenger in a special event held in Paris with the BWT pink making its debut on the French manufacturer’s car.
Alpine became the penultimate team to unveil its 2022 F1 challenger – the A522 – in a glittering event in Paris, barely two days ahead of the first pre-season ‘shakedown’. It is their’s first car with the BWT pink on it after it switched teams from last year.
The traditional or corporate blue along with red and white remains on the car for the 2022 F1 season, with the BWT pink making its appearance on the French manufacturer’s car, moving away from the Aston Martin (or Force India/Racing Point) family.
The team also revealed that it will run a dominant pink livery for the first two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to promote its partnership with BWT. That livery was the one which got leaked on social media before the actual launch was done.
Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were present for the event alongside Oscar Piastri with the senior members like Laurent Rossi and Luca de Meo were in there too, as Otmar Szafnauer made his first Alpine appearance too.
Looking at the car, it has a little shorter nose than others, while the cooling vents is not on top of the sidepods but it forms the engine cover – almost like how it is for Ferrari. The sidepod, therefore, is more traditional on the A522 machine.
“It’s with great pleasure that we launch our A522 to the world today, marking the next chapter in Alpine’s Formula 1 journey,” said Rossi. “We are proud racers and have poured the essence of Alpine’s racing heritage and passion into this new generation of car. We have a clear plan and vision in place at Alpine and we have some of the best people in the business to help drive us forward and realise our ambitions.
“Our team is stronger now and, we hope, future-proof. Our driver line-up is the perfect recipe to help deliver the results we want to achieve on track. 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. We are going in the right direction and we want to carry on our climb to the summit.”
Starting with the drivers, Ocon stated: “I’m very excited, of course, to not only see the A522 for the first time but to drive it for the first time this week. It’s always a privilege to drive a new Formula 1 car for the first time as you know all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes at both factories in Enstone and Viry from all of the many talented people working in the different departments there. That feeling and responsibility is truly unique and very special. I feel prepared, I feel ready physically, so let’s hit the track and see what we’ve got in our hands this year.”
And Alonso added: “It’s good to be back and I’ve been working hard to be ready for the new season. The build-up has been a long time coming after the rule change was delayed due to the pandemic. The car looks fantastic with the new regulations in place and I like the new livery. We have a new engine and we’re confident we had a good development in place for this new generation of car. We won’t know where everyone stands until Bahrain, but we’re excited to take the car for its first spin in testing this week. I hope the new regulations have worked and we get more exciting wheel to wheel racing this year.”
F1 2022 launches so far:
Here’s shakedown list:
Here’s details of F1 launches, filming, fire-up
Here’s details of contract, superlicense penalty points
