Alpine have revealed a striking new livery on their 2022 Formula 1 car and a unique colour ‘flip’ plan for the opening races, as the French team look to make a big leap up the order in their second campaign.

The main A522 look is predominantly blue but also has large splashes of pink as Alpine, formerly known as Renault, celebrate a new title sponsor in BWT, who previously brought their colours to the Aston Martin team.

In an added twist, it was revealed during Alpine’s launch that the colour scheme will ‘flip’ for the first two races of the season, meaning a dominant-pink look for the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs.

Launched two days before the season starts in earnest with winter testing, Alpine are the ninth team to formally unveil their new challenger, designed to the new regulations aimed at revolutionising wheel-to-wheel racing.

They say the car unveiled in Paris was a show car, with the team to shakedown their ‘real’ challenger in Barcelona on Tuesday before the winter test.

Alpine finished fifth in the constructors’ standings last year, their first following Renault’s rebrand, with that result largely down to an unlikely race win for Esteban Ocon in Hungary.

Ocon is again joined by two-time world champion Fernando Alonso this season, with the Spaniard – who joined the team last season and impressed – openly admitting that the team’s success in maximising the new rules is what he’s back in F1 for.

“I came back because of this regulation,” said Alonso. “I think the team did an amazing job, so we are all very motivated.”

The changes in F1 aren’t the only big ones Alpine are contending with in 2022, as they have also made significant alterations behind the scenes.

Otmar Szafnauer, formerly of Aston Martin, is in as team principal – with Marcin Budkowski leaving his role – while another experienced F1 technical chief Pat Fry is in at Alpine as chief technical officer.

“I look forward to helping them beat not just the Aston Martins of this world but everybody else on track,” said Szafnauer, with Aston Martin likely to be one of Alpine’s main rivals.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said last week that he is “not discounting any teams” from running at the front this year, and Alpine will hope to make the most of the rules reset and challenge closer to the front than last year.

Source : www.skysports.com