#lotus renault

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Ayrton Senna (Lotus Renault) Detroit 1986

[threecheers-forsweetrevenge]

Pictures you can hear

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Lotus Europa S2, 1968. The Europa was the first mid-engined Lotus road car and, when it was introduced in 1966, one of the first series production mid-engined sports cars. It was powered by an alloy 1470cc engine and transmission taken from the front drive Renault 16, turned through 180º to drive the rear wheels.

[gentileformula1]

[andromedasummer]

actually michael schumacher shouldve never been punished for driving into jacques villeneuve in 1997 because what people dont realize is that in the moment before he turned his car towards villeneuve, michael was sent a vision of the future where he saw villeneueve's name in jeffrey epsteins black book and, upon being given divine comprehension of what this meant, he took action into his own hands everybody say thank you michael please do it again michael

[grayrazor]

What's your favorite 1960s coupe or sports car? (not exclusive to those pictured)

[shutinlear53]

2011 was one of the silliest F1 seasons

Pictured here are the Renault R31 and the Lotus T128, both featuring similar color schemes, Renault & Lotus branding and the same Renault RS27-2011 engine. The two teams, namely Lotus Renault GP and Team Lotus, had no relations whatsoever.

[frenchcurious]

Ayrton Senna, Lotus 98T Renault EF15B 1.5 V6t - 4éme au Championnat du monde des pilotes avec 55 points et 3éme avec lotus au Championnat du monde des constructeurs avec 58 points en 1986. - source F1 Old and New.

[thef1x]

[j-emini]

here, have some old f1 liveries to remind you that this sport did once have flavour

Brawn BGP 001 / McLaren MP4/4 / Renault R26 / Arrows A22 / Jaguar R2 / Lotus 48 Gold Leaf / Ferrari 641 / Jordan 191

[masoncarr2244]

[macaiv]

I could say many things about Alpine (Hitech really at this point). F**k a** team. But i'm just tired of it all. Just imagine seeing your favourite driver get treated like dirt repeatedly by his own team. A team that he has been loyal to since day 1 (2020). A team he was essentially connected to since he was 12. Enstone was where he learned english, Enstone was were he grew up and whom he credits made him into the driver that he is today. Enstone was his racing home. He wore their colours proudly, be it in Lotus colours, Renault or Alpine. He loved this team, he defended them and believed in them.

This is how they repay him.

[gentileformula1]

[ferraris-gf]

explaining f1: the cars

chassis

modern day f1 cars are constructed from composites of carbon fibre and other ultra-lightweight materials. the minimum weight currently permissible is 740kg including the driver but not the fuel.

engines

as of the 2014 season, all f1 cars have been equipped with turbocharged 1.6 l v6 engines, which were previously banned in 1989. this change gave up to a 29% increase in fuel efficiency.

transmission

f1 cars use highly automated semi-automatic sequential gearboxes, with regulations stating that 8 forward gears and 1 reverse gear must be used, with rear-wheel drive. fully automatic gearboxes are illegal to keep driver skill. the last f1 car fitted with a conventional manual gearbox was the forti fg01 which raced in 1995.

as of 2009, all teams use seamless-shift transmissions, which allow a near instantaneous changing of gears for minimal time loss. shift times for modern f1 cars are in the range of 2-3ms.

steering wheel

the wheel can be used to change gears, adjust the fuel/air mix, change the break balance and call the radio among other things, allowing the driver a huge amount of control. data such as engine rpm, lap times and tyre temperature etc. are displayed.

fuel

the fuel in f1 cars is fairly similar to ordinary petrol.

to make sure teams and fuel suppliers are within regulation, the fia requires fuel teams like shell, petronas etc. to submit samples of the fuels they are providing for races. at any time, fia inspectors can request a sample from the fuelling rig to compare. the teams usually abide by rules but in 1997 mika hakkinen was stripped of his third place finish in spa due to his fuel being the incorrect formula.

tyres

you can read all about tyres in f1 here!

breaks

the brakes used in f1 cars are designed to work in up to 1,000 degrees celsius.

drivers can control brake force to compensate for changes in track condition or fuel load.

notable cars

the victorious red bull racing rb18 from the 2022 season, driven by max verstappen.

the dominant mclaren mp4/4 driven by ayrton senna in 1988.

the highly successful ferrari f2004 driven by micheal schumacher at the 2004 united states grand prix.

the 1994 williams fw15c, widely considered to be one of the most technologically advanced f1 car of all time

the first f1 car to be powered by a turbocharged engine; the 1997 renault rs01.

the lotus 78, which exploited the aerodynamic effects of downforce, or ground effect, which was banned by the fia in 1983 (though it was later brought back for the 2022 season onwards).

the 2009 brawn bgp001, using a 'double diffuser' (to harness downforce) which was banned by the fia in 2011.

[not-that-syndrigast]

I hate Alpine.

And I know, it seems hypocritical of someone that claims to be incapable of hating, but that is why i am about to give you the longest analysis on whats wrong at Alpine.

The thing is, I don't hate alpine because of their drivers or just for fun, the reason i hate alpine is that i know they could be so much better. They have great drivers, they could be fighting for podiums right now, but sometime in 2022 it all went downhill. I don’t hate Ferrari, as an example, because I am well aware that they are trying their hardest and I don't agree with their strategies, but I don't hate them because it's not that deep. 

So, let's start from the beginning; the downfall of Alpine. But to fall, you have to rise. 

Alpine, or officially BWT Alpine f1 team, formerly known as Renault sport formula one team have had a rocky path. For clarification; the official team name has changed multiple times and Renault (the car brand) has been involved in different percentages. In 1995 they produced the engine that would help Schumacher win the world championship and the then team called Benetton the constructors title. In 2000 Renault officially bought the team and changed its name to renault f1 team in 2002, these are the parts where it becomes interesting; in 2005 and 2006, with the help of Alonso and Fisichella, they won both the drivers championships and constructors championships. In 2010, they pretty much sold the team to Lotus, only to buy it back in 2016 and rebrand it to Alpine in 2021, to “promote Renault sports car brand” as stated on wikipedia. 

Now, why is all that important? Considering all these facts, it's pretty clear that Alpine is not a winning team like Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari, but they still managed to win some things. Different then other current backmarker teams, they have experience that they should use, which brings us to the big point of this; the real rise of alpine.

The 2022 drivers line up, consisting of Alonso and Ocon as drivers and Piastri as test driver is the perfect example of a popular strategy on how to build a team. With the alpine rebrand, they made a lot of changes in head positions to ensure a new beginning. This strategy is most famously known from Mercedes in 2010. The strategy is easy; the team signs a former world champion with many years of experience, in this case Alonso. Alonso knows the big teams, knows how they work. He almost won a championship with both McLaren and Ferrari, he knows how to make a team competitive. His role was to teach Ocon and Piastri, because it was pretty clear Alonso wouldn't be able to stay with the team for another decade, that's what Ocon was for. Ocon as a driver was already experienced and thus cheaper than a rookie, he lacked experience in fights though which Alonso could give him. Piastri would have replaced Alonso and thus the team would have two young drivers with different strengths to build the team around and win. You can't make a championship winning team with a car and drivers in a year, but with the Ocon and Piastri combination, they could have easily kept both for a decade, if not longer. 

But this is where the downfall begins. The strategy was not the problem, it would have worked if everyone actually followed it. Ocon has mentioned in interviews before how his, Alonsos and others comments on the car were ignored and they’ve been facing the same issues for years, which means Alonso's whole reason to be there was ignored. The only reason why Mercedes managed to be so good was the fact that they could have employed Schumacher and Rosberg as engineering interns, they knew how cars worked and they could give feedback. Ocon and Alonso could do the same, only that they were ignored. Then, many important people left, like Piastri and Alonso. They had planned on Alonso leaving the team, but under better circumstances and suddenly they also lacked the second driver they had planned with Piastri, and that's where they made their next mistake; signing Gasly.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Gasly, but it's a strategic failure. The team had a not functioning car, drivers lacking experience that they should’ve gotten from Alonso and the team lacking basic team work. When a midfield team signs two experienced but not winning drivers, that's usually a transitional strategy when they either plan to sell or start a new strategy. With Gasly and Ocon they are aware they can't win, which is why we are at their current masterclass of disaster team strategies.

They got rid of Ocon, after being absolutely weird not just about him but pretty much everyone that has left, which is why I'm questioning why people even want to drive for them, but alright. Their next step is to sign a rookie in hopes to build a team around them, only that said rookie has no experience and won't be able to get much experience from Gasly either. Even if they fix their car, neither of them knows how to fight for a championship or even a win. 

I want to go into deeper detail about Ocon though, because to me it's the best proof that Alpine is absolutely going nowhere. Ocon is with this team for his now fifth season, he got their first win as Alpine, he's been there through a bunch of bad seasons, with different teammates to now decide that he would leave. This leaves me to believe that there could only be two different explanations as to why he’s leaving; either, the team wants to get rid of him. No team is nice to their drivers unless they are currently winning and even then it's really on edge. It's about money and not being nice, so after Monaco there was quite a bit of talk. I wont address Monaco here, because the crash itself is irrelevant; relevant is only how they talked about Ocon which led many to believe they wanted to get rid of him. It makes no sense in my opinion though, considering that Alpine seeks to get a rookie into the second seat, he’s the one with actual experience on fighting. Many talk bad about his on track fights, but i think it's exactly what you need to win. The other thought is that Ocon deliberately left because he doesn't believe in Alpine anymore, which would frighten me if i was at Alpine, because he’s been through four rather bad seasons, even if he could have signed for another team and there were talks, he used to believe in Alpine. Only that belief is over now and he thinks Haas could be better.

But these are only speculations; back to the facts. In recent times, Alpine also could not score with being likable in any other way. From the way that no one stays at the team and the team principal once again got exchanged to the fact that they want to become a customer team. Yes, the Mercedes engines are better but just logistically, everyone knows they won't be able to build a better car than both McLaren and Mercedes so they could have focused on engines.

Last but not least, it's good that they support many young drivers through their drivers academy, if only they actually got the chance of a seat that would be a bit better, but considering that except for getting an F1 seat, the Alpine academy is one of the best, i can't really hate them for it.

As always, these are only my thoughts and ideas so I would be very interested in what others think of Alpine and if you agree or not and why. Also i'm sorry this got so long, i still have many thoughts about them.