F1 | Alpine F1 Team | FIA allowing floor stays 'has helped other people out massively’.
Having stuck to the original FIA regulations, Pat Fry, Alpine's chief technical officer, says allowing floor stays has clearly benefited their rivals.
One of the common themes of the new F1 2022 regulations seems to be that they keep changing. The minimum weight was already extended again prior to the start of the season. As well as this, the FIA’s pre-season concession in allowing floor stays to help counter porpoising also showed a reversal to what was originally agreed. As much as this has been welcomed by many teams, Alpine F1 Team, having stuck to the original regulations in the design of their car, believe that the allowance of the floor stay has benefited other teams on the grid. Pat Fry, Alpine's chief technical officer says the allowance for a floor stay ‘has helped other people out massively’.
F1’s 2022 regulations brought a clean sheet of paper for F1 teams to design their car around. F1’s well-publicised return to ground effect was welcomed by fans and manufacturers alike. However, during pre-season, the sight of several teams having their 2022 challenger bouncing up and down the straights as a result of porpoising – a term every F1 fan is now an expert at – was not the outcome many predicted.
The reason that so many teams had issues was because when travelling at high speed, the floor of their car would flex down at the edges. The key to a better performance would be to minimise the flex of the floor and this could happen by fitting floor stays to strengthen the edge of the floor and reduce the movement.
Such a move was implemented by several teams on the grid in testing even though it went against the regulations at the time. However, seeing the need for teams to have this design element, the FIA conceded that floor stays could be permitted. Whereas this allowance benefited teams like Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, those which followed the original rules – such as Alpine F1 Team – now feel they are missing out.
Alpine F1 Team purposefully created a strong enough floor on their A522 which would not flex at high speed. Such a firm floor increased the weight of its car but was a sacrifice the team was willing to make.
Pat Fry, Alpine's chief technical officer, was asked by motorsport.com about how on top of porpoising and floor flexing his team was:
"I wouldn't say we've been clever and designed around porpoising or whatever.” Fry said. "We designed our car for maximum performance, but accepting that it was going to be slightly heavier and slightly overweight. We put a lot of stiffness in the floor and our wide top body also allows you a stiffer installation. So that's helped us out, to be honest."
On the issue of the allowance by the FIA for floor stays, Fry’s remarks show he is a seasoned veteran and was not surprised by the concession but that does not mean he is happy with the decision.
"But it was a bit of a cop-out when a stay was added. But what can I say? That was a bit frustrating. We haven't put it[a floor stay] on because we're already stiff enough, and I expect that has helped other people out massively. That's all part of the game. We just have to take it on the chin and design around it for the next upgrade. You can make a lighter car but we've already spent the weight."
Nevertheless, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will see Alpine F1 Team bring a range of updates to their A522.
"Clearly there's lap time in everything, but we've got to just work through things sensibly.” Fry said. “We've got some upgrades coming along over the next two or three races. All of which are kind of based on our knowledge before seeing everyone run.
"Then there's obviously a load more coming through, after everyone has seen interesting things on other cars. We want to try and claw back as much [weight] as possible. We're not that far over, but you want to be a couple of kilos under."
Before the upgrades arrive, Alpine F1 Team must first navigate the newly redesigned Albert Park Circuit at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix. With the redesigned corners, there is extra speed to be found but that brings its own challenge as admitted by Pat Fry.
"In running over kerbs we're obviously making things stiffer and heavier to try and survive. So it's a bit of a battle. You normally have a car that puts on five kilos in the first half of the season while you try and make it live reliably, and with these cars [and floor design], by kerbing and the way things are going to get damaged, we're a lot more vulnerable to that now."
In football terms, it would be very easy for Alpine F1 Team to view FIA’s concession as ‘moving the goal posts’. Obviously, everyone wants to see a closely matched grid, but you can’t help but feel sorry for teams that stuck to the rules to begin with. Hopefully further concessions will not come over the course of the season but in Formula One you can never be sure.
