Alpine’s Revival: Sanchez’s Game-Changing Post-May Upgrades

David Sanchez’s mid-season strategy overhaul revitalized Alpine F1, delivering a transformed car and setting the team on a competitive path.

David Sanchez helped Alpine F1 achieve a salvaging end to the season after a largely disastrous year. The team’s technical director explains how he worked from his arrival to address the flaws in the A524.

“When I arrived, the car’s limitations were very clear, and the way to steer it out of that corner was equally evident,” Sanchez told The Race.

“That’s why, in the first few weeks, we took stock of what we had in the pipeline.”

“While we paused, we shifted the development focus, particularly in terms of aerodynamics, and set out a plan to deliver a comprehensive update package.”

“The aim was to realign the car with where it should have been without the missteps. By late May, when I began suggesting, ‘Let’s try this, this, and that,’ there were doubts, but also questions about whether we were sure of the direction.”

“Everyone kept their heads down, worked very hard over the summer, and we received that major upgrade package in Austin, which was practically a new car. Then, with the wing in Qatar, it was a new car within, let’s say, four months. That brought the car back on track.”

The Spaniard relied on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to extract performance, rather than prioritizing the wind tunnel approach of his predecessor, Matt Harman.

“That was part of having a clear direction, focusing on the type of characteristics we were pursuing, but also using every available tool and not simply relying on the wind tunnel in a very specific area of the map.”

“Today, CFD is highly advanced and provides far more information—it’s where we design the car. Instead of saying the wind tunnel is the aerodynamic tool, it’s just one of them.”

“There are several others: data from the race car, CFD data that shows the flow characteristics and how to manipulate them, and finally the wind tunnel, which adds another layer.”

“It’s about combining these three environments. You try to build strong confidence in the direction you’re heading. But also, if what you’re doing is fundamentally sound—if the wind tunnel is happy but the CFD says not to proceed, you don’t proceed.”

Sanchez explained that the work focused on the car’s flexibility to address its problematic characteristics: “It needed to change, yes. If I shared numbers on ride height, you’d see they haven’t changed much—just enough to move away from the porpoising window and to create a more flexible car.”

“You can run it very stiff if you find a perfectly smooth track and avoid curbs, but most of the time, it needs some flexibility. That’s what we aimed to achieve. You mentioned sensitivities and all those other factors; the narrower the window you target, the easier it becomes.”

“The reality is that the race car has an operating envelope on track, and the aerodynamic development has to fully cover that envelope and more. If you achieve that, that’s when you reach a high-quality car.”