Alpine brings back folding rear wing at Italian GP as Gasly grabs pole

There are magical days, but there are also special places. Monza is one of them for Pierre Gasly. Six years after his triumph with AlphaTauri, in what was one of the most unpredictable Formula 1 races ever, the Frenchman took the first pole position of his career in the most unexpected way possible.

Even Alpine itself had not predicted that it could get involved in the fight for the very top positions, especially considering that the target at the start of Saturday had been to make the top 10 in qualifying. That was a more than realistic and achievable goal based on what was seen in practice, with the team fighting Racing Bulls and, albeit inconsistently, Audi.

The final classification was much more favourable than anyone could have expected, but this was not a pole position produced by chance. It was deserved and earned on track. Certainly, the slipstreaming games played their part, and it cannot be denied that Mercedes realistically had more margin with George Russell had he not been involved in a fracas with Max Verstappen on his final attempt. But you have to capitalise on such opportunities.

That is exactly what Alpine did. The A526 is a car that, particularly in the configuration brought to Monza, generates relatively little aerodynamic drag compared with other teams, and that undoubtedly helps on the long straights. Even in practice, it was possible to see that the Enstone team was recording excellent top speeds on the straights. The challenge was finding the right balance through the corners without giving too much away.

There is, however, an interesting aspect to this weekend’s pole position, because the low-downforce package also featured an old acquaintance: the rear wing that opens in reverse, causing the two flaps to collapse. This solution had been seen in testing and during the first three races of the season – Australia, China and Suzuka – before being set aside in favour of a more conventional opening mechanism similar to last year’s DRS.

The low-downforce package has therefore brought back the early-season wing, while all the additional elements on the wing actuator have been removed. Alpine was actually the first team this season to introduce dedicated structures around the wing-opening mechanism at Suzuka in order to find more aerodynamic load, starting a trend that was subsequently adopted by all the other teams.

On a circuit like Monza, however, all those additional elements aimed at generating more downforce were not considered necessary and were removed, effectively returning to the very first specification from the beginning of the year. That version was considered more efficient, including in its interaction with the diffuser.

It is worth remembering that at Zandvoort two weeks ago, Alpine introduced a major package of long-awaited technical upgrades. With it, the A526 found some of the downforce it had been lacking, and this was particularly useful in the high-speed corners.

That does not mean that Alpine has suddenly become a benchmark car in terms of cornering performance. Rather, it has managed to find those few extra km/h needed to avoid throwing away what it gains on the straights.

“The new package we put on is not very draggy, which is good here. Our top speed is no secret. You can see that. It’s competitive. So, who knows? Let’s see what we can do,” explained Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen.

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– The Autosport.com Team