How Alpine won the war to be F1's best of the rest in 2022

Instead of taking steps towards the top three, old rivals McLaren and Alpine lost ground as F1’s new ground-effect era began. Frustrations boiled at both teams, particularly as Alpine lost its prized protege Oscar Piastri to the papaya squad, but it was the Enstone-based team that came out on top in the fight for fourth

Matt Kew Dec 23, 2022, 4:13 PM

Upd: Dec 23, 2022, 4:31 PM

Fernando Alonso shouted loudest, so it was he who was heard. The two-time champion is no stranger to a soundbite and knows exactly how to stir the pot. In 2022, that came in the form of calling out Alpine for its unreliability.

His best embellishment arrived following an electrical gremlin that prevented him from contesting July’s sprint race in Austria. At the start of his TV media pen duties, he reckoned already that the fragility had cost him 50 points. When he was speaking to the written press a few minutes later, that had climbed as high as 70. A similar figure was offered after he retired in Singapore with a Renault power unit failure.