Alpine started 2024 dismally with its Formula 1 car being too heavy and also handling like a supermarket shopping trolly.
It finished fairly strongly, so Alpine will be hoping it has built on the progress it made in saving its season.
At least its new management comes from a racing background (Oliver Oakes and Flavio Briatore) so they understand there is no magic bullet waiting just around the corner, it’s all down to hard work and commitment.
Front wing
Starting at the front it looks like the same car actually. Other than the positioning of some of the sponsor logos on the nose it could be the same picture.
Front suspension
Again nothing really to talk about here as far as the suspension is concerned. It's the same layout as 2024 with a pushrod-operated inboard suspension system, similar amounts of anti dive on the top wishbone and what looks like a separate track rod in front of the lower wishbone forward leg.
Sidepod
Sidepod-wise it looks like the radiator inlet is now shallower and the opening goes further around the out corner.
The location of the top section of the inlet looks very similar to last year. However, the inboard vertical section of the inlet and the inner end of the letterbox inlet looks a little further forward than last year.
The inlet section that looks the same is highlighted in yellow while the change highlighted in red on both side view pictures above.
Floor
On the floor edge, we can see a few small changes/developments. The opening shown on last year's car with the red ellipse that allowed the airflow in this area to connect up with the inner tyre squirt seems to have gone.
The floor stay highlighted with the yellow arrows is now at a shallower angle and most of it is hidden by the rear section of the sidepod.
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The turning vanes on the outer edge of the floor highlighted with the blue ellipse look a little more aggressive and the curved section directly behind them is shorter. This should increase the amount of airflow that is pulled out from the front corner of the floor, and improve the potential sealing along the rear section of the floor edge.
Rear suspension
Rear suspension is the same as last year's layout with a pushrod-operated inboard system highlighted in red.
It's always difficult to be sure when the pictures are at slightly different angles but it looks like there is more anti lift on the rear top wishbone forward leg - which is highlighted in light blue.
It also looks like the lower wishbone forward leg highlighted in dark blue is also mounted lower on the inboard, so a lot of work has been carried out on this rear geometry change.
I have also highlighted the body stay with a yellow arrow.
In conclusion
We'll see what else it reveals in testing but from what we've seen so far it appears Alpine's new A525 is very much an evolution of what the team developed its predecessor into by the end of last year.
