The Alpine F1 team is one of only a few complete ‘works’ constructors remaining in Formula 1 – meaning it produces both the chassis and power unit for its 2022 contender, the A522, as an official team of the car manufacturer, Alpine (Renault Group). Being a works team should mean less compromise on some design elements of the car and better systems integration of the power unit and the chassis. But how does it work in practice?
Matt Harman oversees Alpine’s technical group, and 2022 marks his first year in this role. Before becoming technical director, Harman spent half of his Formula 1 career to date designing power units and the other half developing chassis, making him well positioned to recognise the compromises and trade-offs needed to build a competitive car.
Racecar Engineering sat down with Harman at the British Grand Prix to find out a bit more about team operations and how the A522 was developed.
Harman says his philosophy as a technical director revolves around the harmony of systems, particularly in areas like powertrain integration.
‘Certain technical avenues on paper are faster because they improve the output in units of kilowatts but, once you’ve added up all the parasitic losses and considered driveability, we could end up with something that’s not actually quicker,’ he explains.
‘Over the years, I’ve taken responsibility for many different areas of the car and gained quite a lot of understanding of the car’s sensitivities. As a technical director, I think the most important thing is to be able to guide our talented engineers and make tough decisions on which sensitivities to
