By now, you’ve likely seen the 2021 Formula 1 cars from AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo. They look great — but I think Alpine’s just outdone them both.
What was the Renault F1 team is now Alpine. With that, we have a change from yellow and black to blue and red. The new livery was designed by Sean Bull, an artist whose paint schemes have drawn both praise and criticism from motorsport fans over the years. The sheer amount of content Bull posts to Instagram means they can’t all be winners, but here there’s no question the guy absolutely knocked this one out of the park.
Christened the A521, Alpine’s 2021 challenger doesn’t help quell the surfeit of blue and red on the grid, though I’m willing to forgive that here because the result looks so damn good. The slanted “A” logo fits into the diagonal stripe behind the sidepods very well — oversized logos are something of a staple of Bull’s work — and the use of black along the sides of the nose helps slim the car down and accentuate the electric blue. I also like how the red is picked up again around Mapfre’s sponsorship ahead of the driver.
What’s more, it’s worth pointing out that the car seen in these pictures is a render, despite how real it looks — not the actual chassis itself or a physical model. Bull says he worked on that aspect of the launch as well, and the quality of the 3D model and lighting here is extraordinary.
As far as the technical aspects of the car, Alpine is keeping quiet for the moment. Mercedes revealed its W12 chassis earlier this morning and that team’s technical director, James Allison, was remarkably coy about refusing to highlight any of its aero upgrades or improvements. “We have spent our [development upgrade] tokens, but we won’t reveal how we used them just yet. That’ll become clear in good time,” Allison said.
Similarly, we don’t have a great idea about what’s different about Alpine’s new car compared to last year’s Renault, especially considering we’re looking at a render of the thing. In other news related to the French team, we learned this morning that Alpine has hired Daniil Kvyat, ex-AlphaTauri and Red Bull driver, to fill its reserve role for 2021.