When Renault rebranded to Alpine in 2022, many fans were excited to see exactly what the team could achieve, especially after they managed to bring the legendary Fernando Alonso out of retirement to race for the team.
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi claimed that the team had a 100-race plan in place, but never actually described the details of this plan or where he expects his team to be in the near future.
The team have been impressive since joining the sport, finishing fifth and fourth in their two seasons in Formula 1, achieving a win and a podium along the way as well.
Alpine look to be a team on the rise under the major regulation changes that came into effect last year, as without their major reliability woes, the French team could have scored over 100 more points, with Alonso alone being forced to retire from six races.
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Alpine technical director Matt Harman has now finally explained what exactly the 100-race plan entails, outlining his team’s plan ahead of the 2023 season, where Renault has promised to make Alpine’s power unit more reliable.
“We’ve got a big plan, you’ve heard of it – our 100-race plan encompasses an awful lot of things,” the technical director told RacingNews365.com.
“It encompasses facilities, technology, simulation technologies and performance development where we apply developments at the circuit.
“The people we have, we’re not just growing the number of people, we’re growing the type of people we have and the particular expertise we need.
“For me, that’s moving forward and we have got that target for [2023] of converging on that third place [in the constructors’ championship], but it is getting more and more difficult.
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“There’s things that you’re yet to see that will arrive over the next few years and that’s what we need to do: ratchet everything up at the same ratio.”
The team will have an all-French driver lineup this year, as Pierre Gasly has signed for the team to replace the Aston Martin-bound Fernando Alonso, who grew tired of Alpine’s reliability problems.
While this pairing is one that clearly has potential to be a formidable force in Formula 1, former F1 driver Romain Grosjean has suggested that they could be issues in the future, as both drivers will want to be seen as the French driver spearheading the French team’s success.