Alpine F1 team engine boss Bruno Famin has described the change to the split-turbo concept of the F1 power unit as the “most important” factor behind the turnaround in performance.
Renault’s F1 engine program powered by the Alpine F1 team has lagged behind rivals Mercedes, Honda and Ferrari in the turbo-hybrid era, but a change in concept will push the team forward in 2022 and secure the constructors’ championship. won 4th place.
Fernando Alonso expressed frustration with some reliability issues in the second half of the season, but these were to be expected as performance was the target over reliability at the start of the season.
Also important was the decision at Viry-Chatillon to split the power unit in a manner first pioneered by Mercedes in the early days of the turbo-hybrid era.
For 2014 Mercedes chose to split the turbo and compressor within the crankshaft-connected power unit. It provided an aerodynamic improvement and Honda is believed to have followed suit in 2017.
The architectural change was previously planned for Renault’s F1 power unit, and the new design has been fitted to the Alpine A522 for the 2022 season.
Bruno Famin, executive director of Viry Chatillon’s Renault F1 engine division, explains it was an important decision.
“For 2022 we had a completely new power unit with big changes in packaging,” said Bruno Famin.
“The most important change in terms of packaging is the split turbo, which improves the aerodynamics of the car, and this is evidence that we are now working with Enstone (where the chassis is built).”
“We have not only worked on the PU itself, but also on the performance of the car.”
“Obviously the performance of the PU is very important, but if we can make a profit by compromising on the aero, chassis or PU side, we do it and we have done a lot of work on it.
“When it comes to integration, weight and cooling, it’s not just a change in our technical philosophy, but also a change in how we work with Enstone globally.”
“It’s been a positive season in terms of performance and we’ve really closed the gap (to the other manufacturers). There’s no longer a big difference between the best and worst PUs on the grid.”
With Alpine set to enter its third season in 2023 as the only team to operate Renault’s F1 power unit, solving reliability issues is a top priority for the engine side of the operation.
Leakage proved to be a major problem for 2022, with Fernando Alonso expressing his displeasure several times after leaving the team after retiring from the race.
However, the Alpine F1 team went into the season recognizing that poor reliability could be a problem, prioritizing better performance over the winter.
F1 power unit development has been frozen until the new 2026 regulations arrive, but reliability upgrades can still be added.
Bruno Famin explained the thinking behind taking such calculated risks.
“We took a lot of risks by trying to develop the engine as late as possible and not going through a full validation process,” said Bruno Famin.
“I could have done it normally, but I really wanted to push until the last minute. Sometimes it was a little too late because we had some issues, but I wanted to push development as much as possible.”
“Our strategy was clear, to get back into the game in terms of PUs and that has been achieved.”
“[Engine development]will be frozen for four years, so the strategy was to do something about the performance and potentially solve the reliability issue later.”
The actual engine itself proved strong for Alpine, with Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon suffering failures, mainly due to ‘auxiliary’ parts such as water and fuel pumps, but Bruno Famin said he is “very optimistic” that this will be fixed in 2023.
