Gallery: Alpine A522 2022 F1 car

Firstly, let’s get it out of the way. The pink is here, loud and proud as it was on previous cars, as a part of the new BWT partnership with Alpine F1. Interestingly too, a primarily pink car will be run in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, as announced by BWT founder and CEO Andreas Weißenbacher. It’s not the worst colour combination in the world, by our reckoning.

Now, the juicy stuff. Up front we have a four-layered wing with a lower element crossing under the nose, as we’ve seen on the McLaren MCL36. It’s all fairly evenly loaded bar the top elements, which extend ahead of the front wheels. It looks like there’s a lot of room for air to flow to the tunnels, which feature an aggressive outside guiding vein.

The sidepods extended out wide horizontally but not vertically, with the air being guided around and underneath toward the rear. Atop the side pods are two sets of cooling slashes, one positioned further up above the engine. As a result, nothing resembling the so-called ‘canon’ cooling outlet can be found at the back of the Alpine. The wing has a single central leg and DRS actuator.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso said during the presentation that his return was predicated on the arrival of the new rules and indeed the cars that they will produce and that he’s looking forward to the racing they ought to offer. Alpine finished a very strong fifth last year, with a win and a podium and multiple points finishes to its credit and intends to build upwards from there. High hopes from the team, drivers and fans alike.